Fog lights zapped battery?

[camarocruzer]

So I have fog lights that have ballasts, etc. this is what I have: HID DC Xenon Headlight "Slim" Conversion Kit by SDX, H7, 10000K https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYI1CAE..._SCNAub158Y90H

I set them up and tried them out. I smelled something like it was burning and thought it was the exhaust coming at me.

Turned out when I shut the car off, the lights stayed on but very dim. I disconnected the fogs and I tried pressing the lock button on the key fob and nothing. The battery looked like it totally was drained.

I had to leave the house for an hour for errands. Came home and the headlights worked fine, the horn was totally dead. I went to start it and it just kept clicking.

Wtf??? Tomorrow, I'm having Chevy Roadside Assistance come over and they'll try to jump it. If not they'll tow it.

What could those fog lights have done???

[Mark114]

If you smelled burning then it seems likely that something fried. Either the lights were defective or possibly you wired them incorrectly. Hopefully you just blew a fuse or relay with no permanent damage to the car. You can check the battery voltage from the console gauges to see if the battery is drained. It is difficult to provide much more advice with the information posted so far.

Good luck tomorrow!

[camarocruzer]

Originally Posted by Mark114

If you smelled burning then it seems likely that something fried. Either the lights were defective or possibly you wired them incorrectly. Hopefully you just blew a fuse or relay with no permanent damage to the car. You can check the battery voltage from the console gauges to see if the battery is drained. It is difficult to provide much more advice with the information posted so far.

Good luck tomorrow!

Say I had damage to the car -- if that is so, then the car gets towed to the dealer and they take care of it because all they see is the stock fog light bulbs.....you know?

[lawdog]

Originally Posted by camarocruzer

Say I had damage to the car -- if that is so, then the car gets towed to the dealer and they take care of it because all they see is the stock fog light bulbs.....you know?

Is that before or after they read your post here? SHHHHHHHH

[camarocruzer]

Originally Posted by lawdog

Is that before or after they read your post here? SHHHHHHHH

Just because they don't come for you doesn't mean they aren't talking about you.......

No really.....so get this: I called roadside assistance yesterday, set up a TOW for today at 12. I woke up at 10am, 4 hours' sleep after working a 12 hour shift, and wait.

And wait

And wait

And in between 10 and 12, I get two calls asking me how I liked my service. I tell them I haven't had my service yet and where is the tow???

12:15 comes, I get a call from the guy who tells me how he's around the corner. Fine.

Who'd they send me? A 20 year old with a Subaru. No tow.

But, it worked out -- He pushed the car out of the garage, and jumped it to start it. It was dead dead.

i drove it to the dealer. In between. I had shut it off twice. It turned on again no problem.

So I was thinking. In the past few weeks, I had to reset the windows a few times -- the DIC would tell me to fully roll the windows down the up...and also, it would be "hard to start"....that is to say, I'd turn it over, and it would be like aaaaaalmost not turning over. To the point where my son once said "it sounds like it doesn't want to start".

So, I didn't put everything together....until today. Why did it start yesterday, then totally die once I turned off the car??

Is it the battery? The alternator? I know nothing about cars, so I have no clue. I do hope, however, that they check it and find that there is something at issue -- and not "well, it started after sitting overnight, so we cannot duplicate the problem...."

[camarocruzer]

Update: car dealer said they cannot find anything wrong with the battery or alternator. Also said that they cannot find any evidence of a drain.

Before it got to the dealer, I took off the new fogs and their ballasts. I installed the stock fogs. I'm wondering, could it be that the new fog lights and their ballasts are slowly draining the battery???

[thiggin2]

Hey so get this: You know how a tech gets paid? Its called "flat rate". So that means since he wasted his time looking for a problem that might have been induced by you with aftermarket stuff he made a whopping .3 of an hours pay (unless his boss was nice enough to pay him shop time). Techs dont make much of anything if they can't find the problem.

[camguynj]

Originally Posted by camarocruzer

So I have fog lights that have ballasts, etc. this is what I have: HID DC Xenon Headlight "Slim" Conversion Kit by SDX, H7, 10000K https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYI1CAE..._SCNAub158Y90H

I set them up and tried them out. I smelled something like it was burning and thought it was the exhaust coming at me.

Turned out when I shut the car off, the lights stayed on but very dim. I disconnected the fogs and I tried pressing the lock button on the key fob and nothing. The battery looked like it totally was drained.

I had to leave the house for an hour for errands. Came home and the headlights worked fine, the horn was totally dead. I went to start it and it just kept clicking.

Wtf??? Tomorrow, I'm having Chevy Roadside Assistance come over and they'll try to jump it. If not they'll tow it.

What could those fog lights have done???

You may want to read this post. Seems our cars don't like HID DRLs/Fogs
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255812