Morimoto HID problems

MegaCode360 · July 28, 2018

Hi guys

Put the morimoto elite 35w kit on my 15 silverado a few months ago. A few days ago, I had an issue where the driver side light would go out while driving, but would fire back up if I recycled the light switch. I contacted TRS and they suggested swapping the ballasts first, then igniters second to try and troubleshoot. I havent been able to get out to do it yet as I have had a really busy schedule. I was going to do it this weekend. Then tonight, both lights went out about 30 second after starting the truck and will not come back on. Its heading into the weekend so I wont be able to get in touch with TRS until Monday. Any ideas or experiences with these symptoms, and any suggestions for troubleshooting in the meantime until I can talk to TRS?

Thanks!

Ichie123 · July 28, 2018

Try swapping the relays with new ones. Just Bc you can hear them clicking doesn’t mean they’re working. My sisters were clicking but wasn’t turning on. Replaced with spare relays i had a viola. If it’s not that it could be the igniter going out. I think that was my first replacement.

MegaCode360 · July 28, 2018

Thanks for the quick reply! Yeah, what seems weird for me though is that only one side was acting up for the past few days, but it would only go out some of the time and would always come back on if I turned off the headlights and turned them back on. But tonight, boom, both went out and will not come on. Can a bad ballast or igniter on one side cause the other side to fail? Or does it sound like the HD relay?

Ichie123 · July 28, 2018

Could be either. I had the same issue a few months after i got mine. I can’t remember exactly which one i replaced as I’ve had to replace both the relays and the igniter.

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wade_660 · July 28, 2018

I’d venture to say it’s the igniter going bad. Could be a ground if they bother went off at once. Hard to say. I’ve had nothing but problems with my Morimoto and Profile ballasts, bulbs, etc in my 15 Silverado. It’s something different about once a month.

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truckguy82 · July 28, 2018

I bought all my stuff from phil at the retrofit source and could not possibly be happier.

he stopped selling his kits with the morimoto ballasts because of people having issues, he now sells them with the Hylux ballast.

I have oem levels of reliability with my 35w hylux ballast, morimoto bulbs, and d2s mini 4.0 projectors. No special wiring, options, or canbus hardware. Just wire the ballasts up and you’re done.

krzyd · July 28, 2018

I would swap relays. I have used HID kits for years, Moimoto has worked best for me, that said, I still buy two kits at a time so I always have spares of everything.

MegaCode360 · July 28, 2018

Sounds good guys. Great suggestions. I'll be talking to TRS on Monday

MegaCode360 · July 28, 2018

12 hours ago, truckguy82 said:

I bought all my stuff from phil at the retrofit source and could not possibly be happier.

he stopped selling his kits with the morimoto ballasts because of people having issues, he now sells them with the Hylux ballast.

I have oem levels of reliability with my 35w hylux ballast, morimoto bulbs, and d2s mini 4.0 projectors. No special wiring, options, or canbus hardware. Just wire the ballasts up and you’re done.

Do you just use the OEM input on each side for power to the ballast? No HD relay harness or connections to the battery?

cjlet · July 28, 2018

I had issues after about a year of having the 55w HIDs in my silverado. One ballast knocked out both sides. Got it replaced and then was trouble free for about 2 years. Decided to swap out the ballasts to D2S ballasts so I didn’t have an extra cable in there, and had nothing but issues with the D2S ballasts. Swapped them back out for the AMP ballasts and have had no issues for 6 months.

MegaCode360 · July 28, 2018

3 hours ago, cjlet said:

I had issues after about a year of having the 55w HIDs in my silverado. One ballast knocked out both sides. Got it replaced and then was trouble free for about 2 years. Decided to swap out the ballasts to D2S ballasts so I didn’t have an extra cable in there, and had nothing but issues with the D2S ballasts. Swapped them back out for the AMP ballasts and have had no issues for 6 months.

So the one ballast being bad caused the other one to not work? Did it make the other ballast go bad too or would replacing only the bad ballast fix the entire issue? Sounds like this is what happened to me. The left side light would go out intermittently but always come back on if I cycled the light switch. Over the last few days the frequency of which the left light would go out increased, until yesterday both pooped out and neither will come back on.

cjlet · July 28, 2018

17 minutes ago, MegaCode360 said:

So the one ballast being bad caused the other one to not work? Did it make the other ballast go bad too or would replacing only the bad ballast fix the entire issue? Sounds like this is what happened to me. The left side light would go out intermittently but always come back on if I cycled the light switch. Over the last few days the frequency of which the left light would go out increased, until yesterday both pooped out and neither will come back on.

Replacing the one bad one resolved my issue. I did however have to go through the whole process of troubleshooting.

yungcharizard · July 29, 2018

I actually just installed some Morimoto Elite HIDs on my Silverado about 2 or 3 weeks ago now.

First problem was that I initially only connected one bulb to the HD Relay and the other to the OEM input because I couldn’t get the wires to reach all the way. This caused my driver side light to flicker during the day with the “Auto lights” setting. I ended up finding a better way to get the wires to reach to both bulbs and that fixed the light flickering problem.

I also had problems installing the ballasts because I had drilled a hole to mount one of them and I guess they were shorting out or something and wouldn’t let the passenger side light turn on. I ended up using heavy duty 30lb Gorilla tape and zip ties to hold the ballasts down and that ended up solving the problem of my passenger side bulb going out.

The only other 2 problems I have with my HIDs is that they make a “buzz” sound when I first turn the lights on, but goes away after a few seconds so it’s not something that really bothers me too much (apparently some ballasts just buzz and it’s normal).

Second problem is that whenever I drive over a rough road, the lightbulbs seems to wiggle just a tiny bit as if they are not secured all the way even though they are. Next time I go to make adjustments to the headlights, I’ll see if I can get the bulbs to fit in a little more snug and see if that helps.

I also bought some Morimoto XB LED Fog Lights and just today bought a bumper with the fog light cut outs. Just gotta buy the brackets and bezels that hold the fog lights in place and order some adjuster screws (which has been the hardest part).

good luck in fixing your HIDs. I love mine so far and I feel a lot more confident driving at night with them.

truckguy82 · July 29, 2018

20 hours ago, MegaCode360 said:

Do you just use the OEM input on each side for power to the ballast? No HD relay harness or connections to the battery?

Correct, just had to make a ground connection