1G Headlights finicky, need to cycle before they come on (HID)

[greekgodchaos]

My 91 has developed an issue where when I go to turn on my headlights, sometimes they will come on immediately, but if they dont, I have to twist the stalk multiple times until they eventually come on. They are HID's that I installed a long time ago (12 years maybe?) But the car has only been driven for maybe 3 of those years. I am thinking about ditching the HID's for LED H4 bulbs if it turns out the ballasts are faulty. They don't flicker its just the activation issue.

 

[m1nd64m3]

When I’ve had similar issues it was always the ballasts.

 

[chrisman287]

You should run a relay harness to them. They’re cheap and solve a lot of these kind of issues.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Honestly, the clutter you'll have with the HID headlights and their ballasts plus a relay harness only for sub-par headlights just isn't worth it. Ditch them for a set of quality LEDs and don't look back.

I originally had HIDs in this car and they sucked. I ripped all that junk out and just put in halogen headlights and I'm perfectly happy with them. Paid like $60 total for both lenses and they plug right in and work everytime. When these inevitably fail, I'm gonna go with a quality housing and quality LEDs.