ok so im pretty confused with this...

ddm tuning 55w HID kit, hi/low bulbs, in my hhr.

when i installed them, they were working. about 20 minutes later, passenger one is off. its been off for weeks since i installed them.

its a PITA, and i mean PITA, to get the ballast out, and the bulbs as well. have to pull back both wheel wells, and take off the front bumper cover.

i managed to peel back the passenger wheel well and access the wiring. i unplugged the bulb from the ballast, and tried THREE other bulbs, none lit up.

the ballast DOES power up and stay on, we can hear it when we flick the lights on. i guess the ballast still can be bad? it cant be a connection or ground issue on the ballast, becuase its powering up. the bulb itself even gets power, becuase when i flick on the high beams, the bulb moves (they change positions for hi/low beam)...they move, they just wont light up.

now they have a lifetime warranty, but its just a major pain in the *** to take the ballast out, put my bumper back on while its being shipped back, and when the new one gets here, take the bumper off yet again.

any ideas? im gonna call DDM today and have them send me a bulb AND a ballast, and im going to try to get them to send it to me first, and ill send the stuff back afterwards, so i only have to take the bumper off once..

 

Well they won't send you anything first. That I can tell you. They will also want you to walk thru the various troubleshooting first. If you don't, it cost you money to send the ballast back, if they find nothing wrong, they will send back your same ballast.

You don't have to remove the bumper to access they stuff, just go thru the wheel well. It helps if you turn the wheel to gain access then turn the other direction to gain access on other side. It sucks but do-able.

Just cause the bulb moves in and out doesn't mean the ballast is working. It just means the magenitic aspect of the bulb works and that your high beam power is working.

Have you tested the power from the car going into the ballast, by unplugging the ballast input wire and check for power. One is ground, one for low, and one for high. You could either not have a good input connection or possibly a blown fuse. Remember HHRs have a seperate fuse for drivers lo, drivers hi, pass lo, pass hi. Check those as well, or even first.

Have you tried to switch ballasts from side to side?
If the problem doesn't move to the other side then it's not the ballast. If you hadn't said you tried other bulbs the next thing is to try switching bulbs but you already tried that, it's not the bulb. It's wiring or ballast. That's why you switch ballasts from side to side.

If the problem doesn't follow that ballast then it's the wiring. Bad ground perhaps. You should have already verified the power as I stated above. Could also have a polarity switched. It happened to me on an install (not HHR) before. But it was both sides on that other car.

As I said before they will want you to troubleshoot. Here's their troubleshooter telling you the same thing I am.

 

i did not know that about the separate fuses! ill check those as soon as i get home, those are in the hood fuse box right?

unfortuantly, the way i mounted my ballasts, i do have to take the bumper off, but i think im going to move them so i can access them from the wheel well for future (hopefully not) problems.

so with that being said, i will remove it, and swap ballasts, and go from there. but first im going to try the easiest thing and check the passenger fuses! you wouldnt happen to know which fuses they are, or are they listed in the fuse box cover?

 

It is under the hood. The HHR seems to be opposite of what you may consider normal. Things that you would think would be on the inside fuse box like radio fuse, headlight fuse, etc are under the hood and the fuel pump fuse and airbag are in the center console.

I don't recall the number but its shown on the box cover and listed in the owners manual.

 

lmao @ opposite of normal!