AAC halo reliability

bund · 08-23-2008, 11:26 PM

Ok, I was planning on installing the halos i got from AAC this weekend but know after seeing some threads regarding their reliablity i am a bit hesitant. Please post your experience with both their product and their service.

Dennis808 · 08-24-2008, 02:50 AM

I'm really not sure bout AAC's customer service personally but I know their inverters suck For Sure. I got my halo's from Mikey(DUBG300) brand new never installed. So I got them, installed, 3 days later......darkness. They stopped working. Thought it was a loose wire but took off fascia and tested, wasn't it. Then I did a search and find out everyone else is going with Focus Tech inverters...now, I'm heading to the M/G tomorrow with halo's for a no light show.

4u2nv · 08-24-2008, 03:28 AM

When I got my first set of halo's they worked great. Customer service wasn't all that great though (pretty shotty actually), but I was really happy with them for a few months until the dealer wrecked my car. Then I had to get new halo's installed and one of the inner halo's broke and the transformer for one of the fog lights doesn't work. So I'm just rolling with the large halo's currently cause I'm worried about replacing them myself.

**Mr. iNCREDIBLE** · 08-24-2008, 04:44 AM

going on a year with mine and the only issue was the inverters they had last summer..

they swapped them for me at no charge in Feb this year and they have been working fine..

I installed them myself, I didn't ship them out, nor did I allow some of the "authorized" installers to do it..

if you want something done right, do it yourself.. JMHO.

I have seen quite a few people like 4U2NV that have had the rings crack. I believe it happens because of vibration in the headlight after they are reassembled..

the rings are attached to the chrome part, which is a separate part on the internals of the lamp, it is held in place by pressure seating between the lens and the housing, if not seated correctly this causes the projector to vibrate which in turn flexes the chrome area (which is plastic) and causes the rings to crack because they are epoxied to said area and have no give/flex to them.

in addition if you are using the AAC inverters (the latest ones they are using seem to work very well) then I suggest one inverter PER ring, AAC may tell you it is not needed, but I can tell you this combined with the proper wiring on the back side enables all the rings to work at full brightness ALL the time, regardless of whether or not the car is running.

a lot of folks using only one inverter for 2 rings see one ring bright and one ring dull under certain conditions.. the rings on the 300C are just too big for one inverter to handle 2 rings (AAC inverters only, Focustech seem to be larger capacity inverters and don't have the same issue)

lastly the wiring of the power/ground to the inverter is crucial, if not done right you will have issues..

14 gauge wire on a relay with either a switch, or a time delay relay on the parking light switch to prevent the halos from being powered up when you crank the car.. starting the car with the halos on is very very bad, regardless of whose inverter you use, the voltage spike will kill the inverter, and can kill a ring as well..

**LSCto300C** · 08-24-2008, 04:59 AM

I love my halos. I have had the issue with one ring being brighter than the other when the car is off, but when the car is started they all appear to be at the same brightness.
Don't have one bad thing to say against them.
EDIT!!!:
jk, a lot can happen in a week. My halos went out on the drivers side.
I'm angry, I'm hostile, blood pressure's rising...

3733H · 08-24-2008, 02:13 PM

If you can't do it yourself, I wouldn't. Regular maintenance will be needed. One ring cracked and one inverter died in the past year for me. Getting a new light from AAC takes about 2 months.

bund · 08-24-2008, 06:31 PM

Thanks for the info guy keep it coming

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. iNCREDIBLE

lastly the wiring of the power/ground to the inverter is crucial, if not done right you will have issues..

14 gauge wire on a relay with either a switch, or a time delay relay on the parking light switch to prevent the halos from being powered up when you crank the car.. starting the car with the halos on is very very bad, regardless of whose inverter you use, the voltage spike will kill the inverter, and can kill a ring as well..

AAC told me to wire them into the orange lights on the sides of the bumper. Is that ok or is that something that will give me headaches? What do the new inverters look like from AAC? I bought mine in november i believe and they had a plastic inverter but ive heard of alumininum inverters being used by AAC now.

Again thanks for all the responces and KEEP them coming!

taylormotorsports · 08-25-2008, 06:35 AM

I've had mine about 3 or 4 months. No issues at all. I did the work myself because of the downtime involved with sending them back and forth, the added risk of them breakign during shipment, an the fact that I had heard they require so much maintenance. They haven't been my experience, but in case, I wanted to know how to work on them if the need arised. Love 'em, I have them all all the time, they can be on at a car show all day and not drain the battery (they are are not wired to the fogs), and they get rave reviews! I did buy/install FocusTech inverters though...

DustyButt · 08-25-2008, 09:02 AM

I got my halos in April of this year and had AAC install them. They were leaky at first so I had to reseal them myself. I told AAC about the problem and they offered to bend over backwards to take care of the issue. Their customer service was awesome. No issues here. And, since I fixed the leak I haven't had one issue, even in the worst of weather.

**Mr. iNCREDIBLE** · 08-25-2008, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bund

Thanks for the info guy keep it coming

AAC told me to wire them into the orange lights on the sides of the bumper. Is that ok or is that something that will give me headaches? What do the new inverters look like from AAC? I bought mine in november i believe and they had a plastic inverter but ive heard of alumininum inverters being used by AAC now.

Again thanks for all the responces and KEEP them coming!

you can, personally I wouldn't, but if you do, you need to do it right, the power wire on those lights is 18 gauge, it is not enough to handle the inverter load and cause cause the inverter to overheat..

I would suggest using the parking light connection on the turn signal/parking light bulb and if you don't want to put a switch in the line, then at least use 14 gauge wire from the parking light to the inverter power connection to reduce the resistance on the power wire, and GROUND the inverters to the chassis, not to the ground wire on the parking lights..

use one ground point for all inverters to avoid a ground loop that can cause interference on your radio.
I also recomment using a quick disconnect like this (in the event you need to unplug them for any reason.

I got 4 of these, cut the red/blue ends off and soldered the wires directly.

they quickly connect/disconnect, are made of 14 gauge wire and are water proof when connected..

this allows me to disconnect them for dealer visits, as to prevent the dealer from cranking the car with the lights on, or "playing" with the halos, also discourages them from blaming the halos on any electrical faults.. (I have the same type of connectors on my head rest tv's so they can't blame electraical issue on those either..

as for the ballasts, mine are aluminum, and the connectors on them are 3 pin (though only 2 pin are used) the older style had 2 pin connectors and had an issue with the pins shorting out against each other causing the inverter to catch fire..

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