Need help diagnosing morimoto HIDs not working

[Silverwolf2691]

Last night i drove to pick up dinner and my head lights worked fine. Picked up dinner and got back in my truck, and turned on my lights and got nothing.. Well, only fogs and running lights.. I visually checked fuses in the parking lot and all seemed good. At first i had no high beam shutter sound but i played with the connector and i got that back, but still no ignition of the bulbs. I can hear a relay clicking going from running lights to head lights, i just dont know which relay it is.

 

Bit of history, i did have to replace the battery lead fuse and holder because the original one melted. I dont know why. I never lost my hids until i lost the fuse and it didnt happen at night.. might have happened during a rainy day and i never noticed until i drove at night again. Replaced the holder and it worked flawlessly until last night.

 

The only thing i really noticed was on the drive to get dinner last night i saw an orange flash once in the passenger headlight after i had the lights on for a bit and was driving already. Otherwise worked fine. 

 

I have a set of lights i think identical to @Mopar1973Man's lights. And had them around 4 years now. Im using the morimoto motocontrol harness. 

[LorenS]

I wish I could help! So far I haven't had issues with mine that weren't fairly obvious, like a loose plug.

[Tractorman]

On 7/27/2021 at 6:55 PM, Silverwolf2691 said:

Bit of history, i did have to replace the battery lead fuse and holder because the original one melted. I dont know why.

 

May not be related to what is going on now, but a melted fuse holder is a sure indicator of a poor connection inside the fuse holder.  The heat generated from the resistance of the poor connection (voltage drop) melts the fuse holder.  Definitely worth checking out and maybe worth performing a voltage drop test at that location.

 

- John

[Silverwolf2691]

In my researching, most issues seem to be one side or the other, or obvious bulbs going bad.. The orange or pink flash I saw could have been a bad bulb but the light stayed on after the flash. Ballasts usually die one side at a time. I have a feeling its in the relay box in the motocontrol unit. Everything goes into there.

 

@Tractorman, I will look into that.

 

The part that's confusing me is I am still hearing the high beam shutter move. Maybe its back to my original issue of the pins aren't tight in the connector to the box, because I had to wiggle the connector/wires to the control box to get the high beam shutter to move.

 

Don't think I'll have time to look at things until this weekend.. Luckily I don't have anything after dark. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Best I can say is use a test light and see where the power stops. Just remember the ballast creates a nice 70 to 90 volts. 

[Silverwolf2691]

3 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Best I can say is use a test light and see where the power stops. Just remember the ballast creates a nice 70 to 90 volts. 

 

 That's the part that bothers me lol. I just don't know how much is actually kept in the ballast (capacitor wise) when powered off.. I have a digital multimeter I was gonna use.  

[Mopar1973Man]

Nothing being if the bulb is good should be consumed by the bulb.

[Silverwolf2691]

Whelp, luckily it wasnt anything major but i stll need to decide what to do next. The white wire from the headlight connector pushed out of the motocontrol box connector. So there was nothing saying "time to turn on" to the lights.. The pin seems to be missing the locking tang that keeps it the connector. I have a spare motocontrol harness from the last time i had issues but didnt need it.

 

I got the lights working, but should i just swap the harnesses? Also im in the age range of the ballasts and lights so im also wondering if i should swap those out too. Dunno, maybe im a bit gun shy since its happened twice on me and dont want it to happen while im driving next time

[Mopar1973Man]

Harness needs replaced for sure. Ballast I've got lots of hours from the 5 years of driving back and forth to Ontario, OR. Ballast will be fine most likely. The only thing that will shorten a ballast life if you upgraded to a bigger ballast and make the bulbs brighter which is an option but it not only wears the ballast out faster but the bulbs too.