Dapper HID Headlights

[Phantom]

About  4 years ago I bought a Dapper HID headlight kit thorough Motorsport Auto.  I didn't know it was Dapper until it arrived and I saw the packaging or I would have purchased it directly.  The kit sat in my garage for nearly two years before I had an opportunity to get it installed.  I actually had to have a shop do it because my time has been eaten up with so many things the Z had really been neglected.  Anyway, the shop did what appeared to be a good job with the install but the headlights didn't work properly.  I contacted Dapper and we went through a bunch of troubleshooting only to finally discover that it was a self-inflicted wound.  I had downloaded the instructions off the Dapper website that were specific to the S30 but didn't realize that the wiring on a 240Z (used for the instructions) is different on a 280Z so the headlight plug wires got placed in the wrong position.  Once I figured that out and put the wires into the correct 280Z position the lights worked great!

About three weeks ago, however, they suddenly just quit working.  They worked - and then they didn't work.  The first thing I checked was the fuses.  I checked the fuses in the headlight circuit in the car fusebox - both were good.  I checked the fuses in the HID headlight power circuit - they both were good.  At that point I contacted Ben at Dapper who had patiently endured my endless questions when I had the first problem.  He asked me to check the voltage at the ballast and when I first checked it I got 0.065 VDC.  Then I realized that I wasn't getting a good ground on my Fluke meter.  When I redid it i got 6.96 VDC - a long way from 12 volts.  Ben then asked me to try to follow the circuit upstream to see where the voltage loss occurred.  I checked at the fuses and I had 7.5 VDC, and then at the power source block and again 7.5 VDC.  The power wire went into a wiring loom that covered my stereo system power wires and never reappeared.  I called the shop where the work had been done and they did a Sergeant Shultz on me as the work had been done a year ago.  I didn't have any spare wire laying around to I clamped one end of my red side jumper cable to the positive terminal of the battery and then to the power source block.  Measured that with the Fluke and I had 13.46 VDC (Lithium battery).  Hit the light switch on the car and - Viola! - I had headlights.  Quick trip to O'Reilly's for some wire ends and some 10 gauge wire and I had a new wire running from the battery to the power block and the headlights work better than ever.  Still don't know how the one wire was losing power between the battery and the headlight power block but that is no longer an issue - until I have conversation with the shop that originally did the work.

Thanks again to Ben at Dapper Lighting for hanging in there with me.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Phantom