I just installed my second set of HID lights in the fog lamp housing. When they are on, I am getting FM radio interference. Will a relay harness quiet this issue? I have the same set as low beams and I have a relay harness with no radio reception issues.
Sounds to me like you have an inductive ground path or ground loop. <Warning Nerd explanation ahead> Since you are drawing more current with the high beams you are creating more flux which is being radiated and picked up by the radio as RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). /nerd I would establish a better grounding system in the engine bay as a whole. Meaning take some 8AWG wire and run seperate lines from the battery (-) terminal to the: block, TB, near if not on the coil pack, the headlights, tranny and alternator. At a minimum at least get a better ground to the headlights and alternator.
I have the relay for the lights ground to the battery. I saw other wires ground to the firewall, maybe I can connect there? The fogs have no separate ground. they were direct plug-ins and cause the greatest interference. Maybe I should install the relay for the fog lights (since it offers a ground, and ground it to the chassis?
I would ground at least the new lights directly to the battery or as close as possible to it. I would use something called star grounding meaning all of your high current GND's meet at a single point.
Nate gives great advise Justin... Also, get with Marcel from Total Lighting Solutions, he may have a cure as well.
do you not have this problem ron???? hope not considering i just bought the same hid's as you have!!! hahahaha
does this issue have anything to do with sirius?...i haven't listened to FM radio in my car/truck since i got sirius :happy:
jdoria what happened to purchasing from me? but anyway did u buy them from aac? a good ground should help to cut down interference. but if u do ground to the frame make sure u grind down the area before.
C'mon Chris, you forgot the followup question. "Did you install them yourself?"... I'm figuring it's likely some pro electrician put a whole new service box under the hood to accomodate the trailer, microwave, frig, buffers, etc. Probably doesn't resemble yours at all even if you do have the same HIDs.
Sorry, I was away for New Year. I just got back last night. I want to try to improve the quality of the ground or increase the quage of the ground wire. I currently have the low beams, which have the relay, grounded to the negative terminal of the battery. I do hear some faint radio interference now that I am looking for it. My concern about increasing the ground wire guage is the how? Do I need to completely remove the (-) wire from the entire light from factory harness to bulb and replace it with new wire? Can I just extend the ground wire with larger wire and screw it into the factory ground on the firewall? (I know in a home, this is a fire waiting to happen)
My original plan was to buy from two different distributors and compare the lights and installation. I had a checkout problem on the original vendor’s website. I ended up with 3 sets from him as I clicked to check out 3 times. I may end up buying a set from you for the fogs so I can complete the comparison test as I planned. As of now, the vendor "X" product isn’t bad; I just think it is directed more towards a different crowd. The light output is good with the halogen reflectors, while not great. Short distance lighting is greatly improved while long distance is lacking. The installation was ridiculously simple although the igniter/ballast mounts need to be modified to hold the unit firmly in the mount. I used zip ties to secure the ballast to the mounting bracket. There is some interference with the FM signal of the radio. I am not yet sure if this is an installation issue or an improperly designed wiring harness from the vendor. The HID lights, installed in my fog lamps without the additional relay harness, are clearly causing tremendous interference with the FM radio signal. It’s to the point I have to turn the radio off. I have a second relay harness and will install it to see if this helps, but not before I figure out the low beam with relay harness radio interference issue.
A ground that is too small is a fire hazard but making it bigger is not. The only reason a longer ground would be an issue is if it was too small for the run. For example if you have a 16awg gnd that is 12" long, you can't use the same 16 awg and make it 48" long. You would need to increase the wire gauge depending on the current levels. At a minimum, What I would do is have a single point that all of your new lighting equipment grounds to. Then I would take that single point and run a 8AWG wire back to the (-) of the battery. I would then take another 8AWG wire from where the alternator grounds itself. Typically the bracket it mounts too and connect that to the (-) of the battery.
thanks. So If I take the included ground wire from the relay harness, cut it short, then extend it with 8 guage to a decent ground area, I can potentially stop the interfecence? How about grounding the foglamps that directly plug into the factory harness? Do I splice into the (-) factory wire and make a ground off of one of the factory harness or should I use the relay harness and rebuild that?
I moved the ground to the same location as the alternator ground. Static got worse as I damaged the connector while "stretching" it to fit over the larger diameter bolt. I also notice NONE of these factory grounds are actually toughing bare metal. They are bolted to painted surfaces under the hood. I am on my way to the auto parts store to get a thicker gauge wire and some connectors.
Once again, Nate gives great advice.. Yea, the Alternator Ground is a bad idea since the Alternator stores energy. Most times, the stored energy will escape through the ground wire as you have found... I would make a shorter ground run from the headlight or foglight. Try using a factory mount location in the Airbox bolts or Window Resevoir as you will be able to hide the exposed metal surface that you will sand or grind on... Also, try upsizing the Awg of the wire by two.
Good info Ron. Im going to give it another go tomorrow night. Tonight I opened the harness and found 2 wires in the ground loom. I separated them and made one an extension of a larger gauge wire (green in picture) So now, I effectively have 2 separate grounds for the lights. There is a slight improvement in the FM reception. Relay I'm going to do this again with a larger wire and grind away some paint in an inconspicuous location under the hood. I still have to install the relay for the fog lamps. When I do that, make the changes. Do you think there is an issue using the negative terminal of the battery?
