Need Help With Head Lights

[airforcefun]

I recently installed a set of HID's on my 01 Tahoe. They worked fine for a couple months. Then the passenger side one stopped working but it would turn back on when i flashed my high beams. Then it stopped working all together, whether or not i flash my high beams. Now neither passenger or driver side HID's are working and my High beams are no longer working. And the High beam indicator light is stuck on in the car.

 

I have already checked the relay and it works.

 

Any suggestions and help is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Justin

[airforcefun]

ttt

[BuckFeverZ]

Did you install a relay harness when you put in the HID's? If not, you could've fried the wiring.

[airforcefun]

u mean the ballast? I installed the ballasts and everything was working fine for a while.

[BuckFeverZ]

No....a separate wiring harness that will power the HID's from the battery instead of the stock wiring. Usually the cheaper kits do not come with this harness and it CAN lead to problems.

[airforcefun]

nope. The O-nex kit didnt come with one. Is there a way to test if I did fry the wiring?

[bill190]

If this was my problem, I would get a multi-meter and see if the bulbs were getting power or not. And troubleshoot from there (using a factory wiring diagram).

 

If they were not getting power, I would check the wattage of stock headlights and compare that with the wattage of the HID's. If the HID's were more wattage, then I would start looking for damage done to the electrical wiring due to overloading of the circuit or exceeding the electrical capacity of switches or relays.

 

Then I would look at the general design of the electrical system and modify it to handle additional wattage (if that was the problem).

 

As to the high beam light on all the time, I would look at the factory wiring diagram and see how this works (what makes it come on), then troubleshoot that area of the electrical system.

 

Everything electrical has a capacity to handle a certain amount of "load". If this load is exceeded, then damage to electrical components can occur. The problem with cars / trucks is that nothing is labeled as to what electrical capacity it is!

(In home wiring this is different. Everything says how many watts or amps it is.)

 

Questions...

What was originally installed and how did this operate and how many watts was being used for low and then high beam?

 

Then what new was installed and how did this operate and how many watts was being used for low and then high beam?

[airforcefun]

gotchya. well i just pulled out my elec meter and im gona go test all the sockets now.

[bill190]

BTW being as it is Sunday night, if you NEED to use your truck at night right away and it looks like this is going to be an involved repair, might want to get some factory bulbs, an inline fuse, some connectors to connect to the bulbs directly, and a switch. Then install these lights and wire up the fuse and switch under the hood.

 

Then you could pop the hood, turn on the switch and have low beams at least (connect the low beams). Then work on the wiring problem as you get time...

[airforcefun]

well the truck is not in a situation where it needs to be used immediatley, but I will need it next weekend.

 

Well I tested all the sockets "High/Low beam" and none of them are getting any power. So Im gona go ahead and buy a book from advanced auto and trace all the wiring and see whats going on. If i cant do it myself I have a friend who works at the chevy dealer and I'll take it over there.

[bill190]

I would start troubleshooting by first looking at the wiring diagram for the specific vehicle and learning how the headlight system works. (Generic troubleshooting for any vehicle.)

 

There will be the light switches which turn on the lights in the cab. A switch to turn on the brights. Then usually a relay. Then one or more fuses. Although there can be more or fewer components. In one case a car had a "flash your lights during the day" switch on the steering column and this switch bypassed the relay.

 

Anyway the wiring diagrams (factory) show all the components, locations of components, wire colors, etc.

 

Then I would check all the fuses for the headlight circuit(s). Some fuses are under the hood and might be between the battery and the relay. Might be just one fuse on one wire. Others are in the fuse block inside the vehicle or in a fuse block under the hood or both!

 

Then I would check specific wiring locations to test what is getting power and what is not. Maybe the relay is clicking indicating that the cab light switch is working, but there is no power to the relay contacts. Or perhaps the relay contacts are fried and power is not passing through when the relay is activated.

 

Just need to check specific locations along the wiring paths. But knowing which wires to test and finding these wires/connectors requires a factory wiring manual in my opinion.

[ApexPredator]

Hello. If I were you I would check to see if you had power at your factory light plugs where you hooked up the ballast. More than likely you may have fried the ballasts. I would then check appropriate fuses and just go from there. Those cheap HID kits SUCK. My ballasts went out in a couple of months time and it was doing the same thing that yours was with the not turning on and having to turn on the high beams to get both HIDs working.