I just installed HIDs on my 99 ex and when I turn them on I get extremely bad radio reception. I get all static on stations that I regulary listen to. Anybody know what's going on?

 

Probably really low grade ballasts with no radio noise suppression features.

 

The brand is RSI. Is that the reason? Or could there possibly be something else?

 

Where did you run the power relay wire (red wire with the in-line fuse) and harness? If you ran it close to the firewall, it's too close to the radio and antenna and will cause interference. Reroute the wire and harness around the front end of the engine compartment and that should alleviate some, if not all, of the RF interference.

 

It runs down the left side to the front of the engine bay, then across behind the bumper

 

What kind of ballast did the HID kit come with? It might be a bad ballast, or lower-quality ballast without the EMF shielding.

 

What do you mean "what kind of ballast"? I didn't know there were different types

 

Some ballasts are cheaply made without any type of EM shielding. Try this: take those silver plastic bags that computer hard drives come in and wrap those around your ballasts. If the static goes away or is reduced greatly, then your ballasts are causing the radio interference. Sometimes, the wiring to the ballasts emits EM radiation. Cut strips of the hard drive bags and wrap them around the wiring. Short of building a Faraday cage around the ballasts and running the wiring in shielded conduit, there's not much else you can do to eliminate the EM interference. I had an issue with static until I got the manufacturer of the HID kit I bought to send me new ballasts. The static was eliminated. Sometimes, you'll get a bad ballast.

 

I thought about the Faraday cage for the ballasts last night, so this morning, I went to Home Depot and picked up a roll of aluminum window screen material. Gonna wrap my ballasts up with this (because I still get a touch of static through my car stereo) and see if this eliminates the static. I'm going to wrap the wiring harness too. I'll let you know how well it works. The window screen material should attenuate the EM interference while providing ventilation to the ballasts. I don't know how hot the ballasts get, but it's probably not a good idea to wrap it in a plastic anti-static/anti-EM bag for too long.

 

I would love to know if this works because it would help out a whole lot