Swapped foglights to HID's, now the highbeam indicator turns on

I have a 2006 Subaru Legacy. Earlier this week I changed my headlights and brights to HID's, the next day I swapped the foglights out for HID's too. After doing this when I turn on the foglights, the indicator on the dash shows that my brights are on. The foglights work fine and when I actually turn the highbeams on the foglights shut off (as they are supposed to) and the indicator light on the dash gets brighter.

 

Does anyone have any ideas as to what may have caused this issue and how to correct it so the indicator light does not come on with my foglights?

check fuses make sure you didn't blow anything. Plus I don't think the High beams can handle HIDs low wattage output.

I used the 55W HID kit and they seem to work fine. The issue didnt start until I changed over the foglights after I had already done the low and highbeams. All I can think of is somehow power is getting through the circuit that shuts the foglights off when the highbeams are turned on and that is triggering the indicator to show that the highbeams are on.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this issue or suggestions on how to troubleshoot it?

Was it hard to install the HID for the foglights? I was thinking about doing this so that they will match my headlights.

 

Any pics?

DRL causing a problem?

The foglights were not that hard to swap over, the biggest issue was access. You have to get at them from underneath the car. As with any HID's you have to find a spot for the ballast, there is plenty of room for the ballast that I used but not too many spots to attach them.

 

I haven't had any problems with the DRL's they still turn on and run just fine with HID's

 

 

Back to the original issue, I did however notice this evening that when my foglights are on and I turn the highbeams on only the passenger side highbeam works, but if the foglights are off when I turn on the highbeams they both work just fine.

I will try to get some pics up soon

yea I would check your connections. Did you use a plug and play kit for all of them or did you go to the battery?

If you used battery harnesses for the lights, I would guess you've got a wire crossed somewhere. I'd start unhooking things one at a time until they start acting right.

I used plug-n-play kits for all of them. Last night I tried troubleshooting it a little bit and discovered that the issue is with the highbeams because when I put them back to stock the problem went away. I still need to come up with a solution so I can run HID's in both though.

HID's in your brights? My eyes are hurting just thinking about it.

yeah why would you need HID's for brights. I have 35 watt kit and it is fine for the regular lights. 55 watt is really bright and three sets of HIDS that seems to much. over kill.

Wow that's a ton of light! Gonna need some shades if your driving behind me at night . Do you find the warm up period to long when you switch over to high beams???

Yea really there is no need for HID's in your highs. Just get some nice aftermarket lights to go in there. The reason why they most likely aren't working is because HID's are low voltage or wattage don't remember. I think you would need to run the highs to the battery.

Yea really there is no need for HID's in your highs. Just get some nice aftermarket lights to go in there. The reason why they most likely aren't working is because HID's are low voltage or wattage don't remember. I think you would need to run the highs to the battery. (x2)

 

Also don't quote me on this, but DRLs generally use a low wattage so they don't have to completely ignite and reduce energy usage. therefore not supplying your ballast with enough wattage, while your lights may turn on your ballast is most likely not recieveing the proper wattage which could possibly cause premature failure of it. Not to mention you are drastically reducing the life of the actual HID bulb by having it run during the day.

haha, yeah I'm sure that HID's in my brights are total overkill but why not do it if I can make it work? I'm not driving behind people with them on and I live in WA in a pretty heavily wooded area where there are lots of places that as much light as possible at night can only benefit you.

 

The HID's do take a few seconds to get up to full light but once they do my brights make night feel like daylight. Perfect to be able to see a deer or elk before it jumps out of the woods in front of you.

 

I think it'll be worth while if I can get them working properly. I will try adding resistors or wiring them straight to the battery and see if that helps.

why not do it if I can make it work?

 

well, if you someone does have the misfortune of coming up on you they will be blinded and could hurt themselves or you. Additionally, I am willing to wager you don't have HID's specifically designed for reflector application, rather projector application. Take the kit out, sell it and replace it with HIR bulbs. You will get plenty of light and not decrease the safety of you and other drivers.

The reason why most of us say that it is pointless is this

Think about it when you turn on HID's they have a warm up time in order for the ignitor to get to full capacity. If you don't use your High beams too much and use them to flash people and stuff you won't even get the full effect of a normal headlight bulb.

 

To make this easier to understand I am just going to throw out an example. None of it is real just an example.

Normal headlight operates immediately at 4300k

HID's operate within 10-20sec at 4300k

Lets say a deer jumps out and you can't see it so you turn your high beams on. Me who is running an aftermarket bulb(non HID) will already see the deer. By the time your HID's engage it will most likely be too late. I say this this way for your safety!

For Super Bright Highs it's easier and cheaper to use: HIR1 Bulbs

 

They simply replace the stock bulbs and produce 4300 Lumens:cool:

I appreciate everyone's input on this matter, and will strongly consider running non-HID bulbs in my brights.

 

I will look into those HIR1 Bulbs, does anyone have any other bulb suggestions that will be bright and that look pretty white? I would like to keep them looking somewhat similar to both my low beams and foglights which are HID's.

I used to have Luminatics bulbs in my RSX high beam I think they were 300k yellow and man were they bright. Matched up well with my 4300k HIDs

I've considered for some time going the HIDx6 route.

 

HID's in Highs/Lows/and Fogs, and making the fogs completely independant, so I can have all 6 running at once. I live about a mile from the middle of nowhere, and the deer population has been growing like crazy. Both neighbors have totaled Full size trucks, I'd be scared to see what one would do to my car.

 

I believe I'm one of the few who could get away with this because I'm in Kansas. The roads are flat so I could kill the brights before oncoming traffic gets blinded. Also, most nights when I'm driving home, I *might* see one or two cars on my 20 mile stretch.

 

Just my $0.02

What about those bumper/grill mount deer whistles... those work?

I've seen cars with them hit deer about as often as cars without them...and they're ugly. So I vote no. I've been very lucky to miss them all so far, I credit that with getting my dads awesome eyesight. But one of these days.....

anyways, OP diagnose and/or fix it yet?