HID HELP!!! lights went out! morimoto mini stage III

so a few days leading up to the blackout, my headlights would some times not come on when i turn them on. i would need to turn them off and back on for them to fire up. then monday they gave up. both lights do not fire up at all.

setup:
1x Bi-xenon Morimoto Mini Stage III Kit (D2S)

• Wire Harness: Relay: H4/9003
• Bulbs: 1x D2S: Philips 85122+
• Ballasts: 1) Morimoto 3Five 35w

so i tested the voltage at the bulb connection



and my driver side was at 23 volts, but the passenger side was only hitting 6-7 volts

volts at the factory headlight connection was at 12

tried a different bulb (Morimoto 3Five 5000K D2S) and no luck

grounds all appear fine (they have been fine for over 2 years), but i went over the connections to make sure and cleaned up some wire routing while i was at it. but no changes made.

so i'm baffled...why would both lights not be working? 24 volts at one, but only 6 at the other, ballast? but why would the other side not work too?

any suggestions?

thanks

 

bump

 

My guess would be that the ballast is fubar....the short causing the one side to be so low may in fact be enough that the whole setup doesn't work. HID lights use the most juice to ignite them..then the power they use goes down considerably.

 

Yea it's kinda leaning that way....

I have a new setup from trs on the way but they had a hold up at the ports so I'm waiting on a 50w setup. But won't solve my no headlight issue till then. Life doesn't wait for shipment.

 

could it be the relay?

I've had two relays go bad so far...

 

Newish relay. Already had one go, on the new style relay now. Seems like with the relay there would be no power to the bulb connection.

Think I'm screwed til I get a new setup.

 

How often do you have to replace that stuff.. Just put hids in the other day now I am worried. I should have just left the regular bulbs in and having spare bulb is no big deal to change when it goes out.

 

Replaced the relays earlier this year. Sounds like ballasts now. Relays I had were the old version which were moisture issues. The new relay seems to be a better build.

I swapped bulbs last year or so from the morimoto to the Phillips but the morimoto we're fine I just wanted a change in light output.

Not happy about the life of the products but I don't regret going hid at all. The retro hS been one of my favorite mods to date

 

Don't run 50w in those Morimoto Minis.

 

I've been running mine for just over a year and have had to replace nothing.

I've got one that sticks on high beam, and that same one has given some intermittent issues with shutting down after running for an hour or so... but if I shut off and restart, it'll spark back up and stay up.
I suspect a weak ballast... I had problems with that one at initial install until I moved the ground to a location off of the radiator support.

 

why do you say this?

 

Too hot.

TRS used to say they were okay, but there have been a few reports of them causing the chrome to peel off of the reflectors.
They will flat out melt the Mini-H1 reflector bowls.

Save the 55w for the FX-R housing.

 

wonderful....

guess i'll have to have a chat with them monday when they open...

looking at some LED headlights as well so hopefully they last long enough for the swap

 

Anyone else have input?

 

Veteran's Day.
Give them a try, but Tuesday might be better.

 

So what exactly would the issue with the ballast be then? I wouldn't think a ballast barely a year old would do this. I've noticed one of mine has started to do this. Kinda annoying...

 

Production tolerances... IOTW, "shit happens"
I replaced the suspect ballast and it's been fine for the last month.

I should add that the particular ballast has always been "iffy"
When I first installed the system, I was having occasional issues with one side cutting out. I swapped ballasts left to right, and the problem seemed to clear up.

 

Like Rich said, don't run 50W (55W)..

I sold my retro setups due to dealing with burned reflector bowls and QC from TRS.

Ran Morimoto Minis with 55W ballasts, chrome plating burned off of bowls in 3 months.

TRS assured me that it wouldn't happen with the FX-Rs - chrome plating burned off in 4 months. Turns out TRS had a "bad production run" around the time I ordered FX-Rs.

Dunno. They were awesome when they worked, but I deduced that when you start messing with an integral system, using less-than OEM quality components is simply not worth the risk. I got tired of fucking with them, and dealing with BS warranty issues with TRS.

For longevity, I'd suggest running 35W..

 

+1

Factory systems are 35w, so any projector retrofits based on an OEM reflector re going to be designed for 35w.

 

went with a new ballast and new relay...my issue turned out to be a faulty relay..

but in the process i went for the denso 35w and the new morimoto relay..

TRS swapped out the relay free of charge on warranty..the denso i purchased

i ordered the 50w system, but they got delayed at customs (luckily) and ended up changing my order to a set of denso ballasts instead.

tested things out with the new ballast and still had the same issues...so they got me the new relay sent over (wasn't the fastest turn around but it got here)

in the mean time i ended up running a switch to my ballasts so i could have lights.. power>switch>ballast>lights worked like a charm

once i got the new relay, everything fired right up and has been working fine ever since...