Confused HID issue

Sean Neilan · April 2, 2017

Posting here as well for more traffic.

Ok I'm really confused now. I had the Morimoto HID's installed in my 2015 Sierra about a month ago. The jackass installer decided the relay/anti-flicker wasn't necessary and didn't install that even though I gave it to him. Everything seemed to be working ok except maybe 1/10 times the passenger side ligjt wouldn't come on until I cycled the headlight knob a few times. Well I knew it was going to happen but never had time to install the harness myself and the passenger side ballast went bad. Today I installed the harness after confirming it was a bad ballast and not the bulb. Everything seemed to be working fine (at least on the one good side, just ordered a new ballast). Light comes on fine every time. Until my truck is running. If I turn my headlights on before starting the truck, it will stay illuminated. If I start my truck and then turn on my headlights, nothing. Is this just because I have the one bad ballast and will work properly when the new one comes in or is something else jacked up?

avgas · April 2, 2017

I had the same issue with my 2014 before I had the headlight TSB done. After they did the bcm program to make the headlight voltage higher I didn't have any issues. I think the ballast were not getting enough voltage. I am not sure if the same applies to your year or not. It is definitely a pain in the butt. I didn't use any relays in my setup and I managed to fit the ballast inside the headlight cavity. I have since went to a 2017 and they definitely got the headlights right now.

notig8smple · April 3, 2017

Man just go to led ..I swear on it I swore on hid until I bought some led for my wife tahoe and ill never go bk to hid I.swear on it they are so clean no flicker bright as hell everything opposite In hid and I bet they last longer than 2yrs tp a yr

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

MR. DRAG SLEDDER · April 3, 2017

The TSB update will not fix it your issue because the Morimoto Kit get it's power right from the Battery. Making sure everything is installed properly and you have solid grounds!!!!I know your frustration all to well after being a tester in the NE but Morimoto are the best HID Kits! I have helped Buddies with other Kits and they were horrible.

arcasey · April 3, 2017

Everything should work correctly if it is installed per the instructions that come with the Morimoto kit. I can tell you that if you don't have good grounds and a good clean connection to the stock input you may scratch your head for days. Morimoto sent a female connector to put the small prongs for the stock connection in once they were run through the dust cover but I tried to use it and wasn't getting a good enough connection so I ended up just putting the bare prongs into the stock connection and using electrical tape to secure them in place. Once I did that all my problems went away.

Lgetz · April 3, 2017

November recheck the ground points and all connections as well to make sure they are proper. If Bozo installer left off relay harness he may have done something else wrong.

Sean Neilan · April 3, 2017

Man just go to led ..I swear on it I swore on hid until I bought some led for my wife tahoe and ill never go bk to hid I.swear on it they are so clean no flicker bright as hell everything opposite In hid and I bet they last longer than 2yrs tp a yr

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

I went LED before HID but LED's suck in the 2015 Sierra projectors. The LED's were just as bad as stock.

Sean Neilan · April 3, 2017

I'll recheck the grounds and connections today after work. Seems strange that if I turn my lights on before I start the truck they'll stay on after starting, but if I turn them on after the truck is running then nothing. My new ballast should be here this week so I migjt wait for that before any more diag so I'll know the faulty ballast isn't causing these issues.

arcasey · April 3, 2017

I do not believe that one faulty ballast will cause both of your lights not to work. If I'm not mistaken the Morimoto Relay harness has two relays. I don't have one in front of me right now but I'm sure that there is a relay for each ballast/bulb combo. My bet would be on a faulty connection somewhere.....

As mentioned previously, if the harness was installed properly (minus the capacitor link) then there should be clean power to the ballasts once the relays are activated. Do you know if the installer installed the relay to the battery connections or did they pull power from another location?

Sean Neilan · April 3, 2017

I do not believe that one faulty ballast will cause both of your lights not to work. If I'm not mistaken the Morimoto Relay harness has two relays. I don't have one in front of me right now but I'm sure that there is a relay for each ballast/bulb combo. My bet would be on a faulty connection somewhere.....

As mentioned previously, if the harness was installed properly (minus the capacitor link) then there should be clean power to the ballasts once the relays are activated. Do you know if the installer installed the relay to the battery connections or did they pull power from another location?

I installed the relay myself and I did it to the battery. Why do you say minus the capacitor link? My suspicions are on a bad ground from the capacitor.

arcasey · April 3, 2017

I installed the relay myself and I did it to the battery. Why do you say minus the capacitor link? My suspicions are on a bad ground from the capacitor.

You have the old style Morimoto Kit. They have updated this kit. The new kit does not have a ground wire on the capacitor link. Still, the capacitor link only smooths the voltage coming from the stock input wire so that the relays are not constantly opening and closing from a pulsing voltage. Technically this should only be an issue on the trucks that use the headlights as DRL's since the trucks send a lower voltage that is pulsed when in DRL mode. I don't know if the capacitor is really needed on the trucks with the LED DRL's but I installed in on mine just in case. At any rate, the ground wire on your capacitor link would definitely be a place to start since your harness is connected directly to the battery.

MR. DRAG SLEDDER · April 3, 2017

You can check the ballast by swapping them? Did Morimoto send you one without doing this 1st? If they did that is new for them

arcasey · April 3, 2017

You can check the ballast by swapping them? Did Morimoto send you one without doing this 1st? If they did that is new for them

Yes, if you have a light that is out and you want to determine if it's bulb or ballast you can just swap the ballasts as long as one light is still working. If the problem remains in the same place then it's a bulb issue. If the problem moves with the ballast then it's a ballast issue.

Sean Neilan · April 3, 2017

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Sean Neilan · April 3, 2017

Yes, if you have a light that is out and you want to determine if it's bulb or ballast you can just swap the ballasts as long as one light is still working. If the problem remains in the same place then it's a bulb issue. If the problem moves with the ballast then it's a ballast issue.

I verified it was the ballast before I installed the harness and indeed I have a bad ballast. I just rechecked all my connections including the grounds. Nothing changed. If the truck is off, the lights come on. If the truck is running, they don't. If I turn the lights on before I start the truck, and start it with them on, they will stay on, but if I turn them off they won't come back on. I called TRS support but it was 10 min before they closed. They said it sounded like a polarity problem and to reverse the pins for the capacitor (just plug in backwards first to check). I tried this and it made no difference. I'm completely baffled. Could it be a bad relay?