i have read many of these posts and seen that just adding the relay harness can or does brighten the headlights,is this true or am i just not understanding something?
What it does is instead of using the extremely small wires to power the lights they are now used to energize a relay that then uses larger wires directly from the battery (through a fuse!) to power the lights. This reduces the losses due to resistance to a very small level. When a device draws a lot of current (amperage, amps) over a wire with greater resistance something has to give and that's usually the voltage, or, to keep the voltage where it belongs the amps will be limited. Overall it results in less power available to the device and causes the wiring to heat up more.
Imagine trying to put out a fire with a garden hose when a fire hose was available. Which would you choose? Voltage is like water pressure and amperage is like water flow (gallons per second). So with larger wires there's more electricity available to operate the device and less is converted through resistance to heat the wiring. More pressure (volts) and more flow (amps) results in the device operating more like the specs say it should.
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'11 LTZ, born Aug 2010, Fairfax, KS
V6/A6, Red Jewel Tintcoat / Cocoa-Cashmere, Sunroof
Cool Mods: Drop-in K&N air filter; 20% tint, DRLs on turn signals,
Painted grilles, 1-wipe washer, WeatherTech mats, CHMSL Pulser
What it does is instead of using the extremely small wires to power the lights they are now used to energize a relay that then uses larger wires directly from the battery (through a fuse!) to power the lights. This reduces the losses due to resistance to a very small level. When a device draws a lot of current (amperage, amps) over a wire with greater resistance something has to give and that's usually the voltage, or, to keep the voltage where it belongs the amps will be limited. Overall it results in less power available to the device and causes the wiring to heat up more.
Imagine trying to put out a fire with a garden hose when a fire hose was available. Which would you choose? Voltage is like water pressure and amperage is like water flow (gallons per second). So with larger wires there's more electricity available to operate the device and less is converted through resistance to heat the wiring. More pressure (volts) and more flow (amps) results in the device operating more like the specs say it should.
thank you, that makes sense,i think ill try just the hid harness and see what happens,i appreciate your detail.
Last edited by mysilversurfer 12; 11-28-2012 at 07:34 PM.
Reason: forgot to add something
There are a fuse and a relay in the under-hood fuse box that control the DRLs. Pull one or both and they'll turn off. If they don't then maybe someone has modified your car or there is an issue elsewhere.
Thanks for the suggestion. I ended up replacing my my harness and ballasts with a much better quality. I have sense had no problems with power inconsistency or flickering. I just keep my parking lights on during the day and turn on the HIDs' at night.
Has anyone seen these... CMF EDIT: url removed from 1st post by new member - Chinese wholesale link I hope its true and they're starting to catch on that we want upgrades for our headlights. If it is I believe the 2012 is still gen 7. Not sure on the price tho. It appears to be that a group purchase is required but not positive on that, just curious if anyone else has run across these.
Last edited by DrivenDaily; 04-06-2013 at 03:17 PM.
So to start I'm not sure how beneficial this will be with installing HID but possibly with changing the low beam bulbs regardless of the application...
I recently took the car up to the dealership to get some work done along with changing the bulbs. After all the work was completed I noticed some chips from when they installed the bumper so I took it back up there. While the tech who worked on my car took the bumper off ect another tech claimed he changes the lows by only popping the inner fenders. Has anyone else been able to accomplish this? Ive searched the forums but haven't seen anyone else claiming this talent lol. If it can be done I would imagine it'd be to difficult to install the ballast/relays.
The tech that was claiming he could do this was a pretty big guy so I'm thinking he may be a little confused on his abilities.
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Re: Official HID Lighting Thread
2011 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ
Mods: Drop-in K&N air filter; 20% tint, DRLs on turn signals,
Linear Mode
