Confused HID issue

MR. DRAG SLEDDER · April 4, 2017

I truly know your frustration, anger and disappointment!!! lol When they work it is all worth it in the end, Trust me it is! Does your Harness have to Relays on the harness on the passengers side?

Sean Neilan · April 4, 2017

I truly know your frustration, anger and disappointment!!! lol When they work it is all worth it in the end, Trust me it is! Does your Harness have to Relays on the harness on the passengers side?

Yes it has 2 relays, one for each side. It's the Morimoto elite kit

arcasey · April 4, 2017

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?

Yea I think they may have misunderstood what you were trying to tell them. If it's a polarity issue then you would not get any light at all. It could be a bad relay but I highly doubt it since they are working sometimes. Since you only have one working ballasts why don't you try swapping the relays and see if that makes a difference. Assuming all connections are good the only reason the HID lights wouldn't work is if the relays are not getting enough voltage to activate.

Sean Neilan · April 4, 2017

Yea I think they may have misunderstood what you were trying to tell them. If it's a polarity issue then you would not get any light at all. It could be a bad relay but I highly doubt it since they are working sometimes. Since you only have one working ballasts why don't you try swapping the relays and see if that makes a difference. Assuming all connections are good the only reason the HID lights wouldn't work is if the relays are not getting enough voltage to activate.

I'll have my new ballast tomorrow so I'm going to leave it alone until then. What could cause the relays to not be getting enough power?

arcasey · April 4, 2017

The only thing that would cause them to not get enough power would be the stock input harness. I have a 2015 Sierra and I haven't taken it and had the TSB for the headlights done and I don't think it was done either because I still had Philips bulbs in my stock housings when I installed the first HID kit. Only other thing I can think of that you can do to ensure that the HID kit is working properly (once your new ballast comes in) is to test the harness by pulling power directly from the battery to activate the relays to make sure the HID relays fire correctly.

Sean Neilan · April 4, 2017

The only thing that would cause them to not get enough power would be the stock input harness. I have a 2015 Sierra and I haven't taken it and had the TSB for the headlights done and I don't think it was done either because I still had Philips bulbs in my stock housings when I installed the first HID kit. Only other thing I can think of that you can do to ensure that the HID kit is working properly (once your new ballast comes in) is to test the harness by pulling power directly from the battery to activate the relays to make sure the HID relays fire correctly.

Well the harness is connected to my battery so isn't it already doing that? I checked the build date on my Sierra and it was post-TSB. My lights were working for a month 90% trouble free before I installed the relay harness, so the OEM input shouldn't be the issue.

arcasey · April 4, 2017

Well the harness is connected to my battery so isn't it already doing that? I checked the build date on my Sierra and it was post-TSB. My lights were working for a month 90% trouble free before I installed the relay harness, so the OEM input shouldn't be the issue.

The harness is connected to the battery but the clean power from the battery has to travel through the relays before going to the ballasts. The stock input is what activates the relays and allows the power from the battery to travel to the ballasts. If the voltage from the stock input is not enough to activate the relays then you would get no power or the relay could be bad and not activating at all. I wouldn't think that is the case since you have stated that the lights function when turned on manually while the vehicle is off. Electrical issues are difficult to diagnose without seeing the issues in person.

When you say that your lights "were working for a month 90% trouble free before I installed the relay harness, so the OEM input shouldn't be the issue" are you referring to the stock halogen headlights were working or your HID's? If you are referring to the stock headlights this is possible since they are halogen and can operate at a voltage lower than 12V.

Sean Neilan · April 4, 2017

The harness is connected to the battery but the clean power from the battery has to travel through the relays before going to the ballasts. The stock input is what activates the relays and allows the power from the battery to travel to the ballasts. If the voltage from the stock input is not enough to activate the relays then you would get no power or the relay could be bad and not activating at all. I wouldn't think that is the case since you have stated that the lights function when turned on manually while the vehicle is off. Electrical issues are difficult to diagnose without seeing the issues in person.

When you say that your lights "were working for a month 90% trouble free before I installed the relay harness, so the OEM input shouldn't be the issue" are you referring to the stock halogen headlights were working or your HID's? If you are referring to the stock headlights this is possible since they are halogen and can operate at a voltage lower than 12V.

The HIDs were working plugged into the OEM outputs. I say 90% of the time because maybe 1 in every 10 times the passenger side wouldn't come on and I'd have to cycle the light switch a few times before it did. This is what I think caused the ballast to burn out. And as I'm typing this is occurred to me that I have the relay harness plugged into the passenger side OEM output. Maybe I should try it plugged into my drivers side. This would be so much easier if getting to the passenger headlight wasn't such a hassle on these trucks.

arcasey · April 5, 2017

The HIDs were working plugged into the OEM outputs. I say 90% of the time because maybe 1 in every 10 times the passenger side wouldn't come on and I'd have to cycle the light switch a few times before it did. This is what I think caused the ballast to burn out. And as I'm typing this is occurred to me that I have the relay harness plugged into the passenger side OEM output. Maybe I should try it plugged into my drivers side. This would be so much easier if getting to the passenger headlight wasn't such a hassle on these trucks.

Yea I don't know. At this point I would plug the factory bulbs back in and verify that things are working properly with the factory setup. I'm sure it will but at least you would know for sure where the issue lies. But, since your new ballast comes in today I would only check that after hooking up the new ballast and if you still have problems. Question: I see that you have an SLT listed under your name so do you have the LED DRL strips?

Sean Neilan · April 5, 2017

Well just put in 2 new ballasts and 2 new igniters and everything is working like a charm. I removed and reinstalled the entire harness and kit, so I have no idea what was causing the problem but it seems to be solved. Fingers crossed!

arcasey · April 5, 2017

Glad you got things straightened out. I'd still love to know why you were having issues, unless both ballasts were actually bad, then that would explain everything.

Sean Neilan · April 5, 2017

I'm quite curious as well. Especially since last night I wound up having to take my wife's car to work because none of the lights would come on and the buzzing noise randomly started. Now no noise and no issues. I wonder if all my fiddling made the second ballast go bad.

Lgetz · April 5, 2017

NV no telling what the actual problem was but the Moron who did work should've installed everything from get go. If he was unsure of what to do TRS is a phone call or online chat away. Hope you don't send or recommend any work to him in the future. Feel you did a good thing in reinstalling the harnesses.

Sean Neilan · April 5, 2017

NV no telling what the actual problem was but the Moron who did work should've installed everything from get go. If he was unsure of what to do TRS is a phone call or online chat away. Hope you don't send or recommend any work to him in the future. Feel you did a good thing in reinstalling the harnesses.

Yeah I'm really pissed at the original place. I hadn't realized he didn't install the harness until a few days later. He gave me a box with my "extra parts" but I thought it was just my LED's in it otherwise I would have told them right there to install the harness before I take my truck. My buddy uses them for all his vehicles (he's got 6) and knows the installer personally. He said he was really surprised and that's unlike him, but after talking to him after the first time my passenger light didn't turn on I just don't think he's up on the latest tech and knowledge with these lights.