Retrofit Troubleshooting Question (H1's)

I've had my retrofit kit in for about a week now, but tonight I blew a fuse and don't know where to start trouble shooting... I'm running TRS's Morimoto Mini H1 kit, used their wiring kit and everything worked perfectly for the last week (I drive 50 miles a day and work long hours so they've been used everyday twice a day for that week. No issues high or low beams during that time). Tonight, I flip on the high beams and the headlights turn off, complete darkness... My question is, does anyone have a wiring diagram for the setup? I need to know what gets power from where and what triggers what so I can trouble shoot. I thought the stock headlight plug was just a trigger and all the power was taken directly from the battery but that's obviously not the case because I blew my 10A high beam fuse. So, any ideas??

 

I am not familiar with the setup you have, or with HID kits, but I have a good understanding of electrical in general.

When you installed the wiring harness did it have relays in it? Did you have to connect anything directly to the battery? How many of the stock headlight connectors are connected to the aftermarket harness?

If it's a relay harness and you blew your stock fuses, there is probably a short between the factory headlight connector and your relay.

If the harness does not contain relays, it sounds like the HIDs are drawing too much power for the stock wiring and the fuse is blowing like it's supposed to do to protect the wiring. Installing a relay harness would fix that problem.

It's also possible you have a failing component (ballast?) in the HID kit.

 

I put as much information as I could in red. As far as your last question, I suppose it's possible although they work perfectly with the low beams. I could be wrong but I believe the only thing that happens when I flip my high beam switch is that solenoid activates, flipping the shield down. I don't believe anything different happens with the ballast and bulbs. That being said, anything is possible at this point. I'm perfectly comfortable trouble shooting bulbs and ballasts when one side goes out but have not seen anyone having an issue where just the high beams don't function. I'm thoroughly confused at this point

 

So the high beams worked before, but now the fuse blows when you go to high? Or have they never worked? I'm sorry but I really don't have much to offer for suggestions, except to check the polarity of the high beam connectors. I think I remember reading somewhere about some year tacoma's being a negative trigger or something like that for the highs, which required reversing the wires in the plug.

Have you talked to the guys at TRS yet?

Good luck!

 

The high beams worked perfectly for a week then BAM, nothing. I replaced the fuse, hit the high beams and blew it again right away.

I sent them an e-mail and PM'd Andrew but they're closed November 1 & 2 for SEMA (perfect timing for my lights to go out, right?). Hopefully they get back to me on Monday. Tomorrow, I'll be able to tear into it a little bit with a volt meter and test light so I'll see if I can isolate the issue. My initial guess is that the TRS control box is shorting out but I'll confirm tomorrow. I'll try plugging into the passenger side light socket to confirm that it's not the truck's wiring also.

 

Can you replace the blown fuse, then disconnect only one high beam solenoid and see if the fuse still blows? I doubt you have two failed components, it's probably just one part on one of the two headlights. And you said the wiring is pretty fool proof, and it worked for awhile, so kinda doubt there is anything misswired. Shorted maybe, but not miss wired.

 

Tomorrow, I'll give that a shot. I don't have any more of those micro fuses and it'll be the first time I'll have a chance to look at it in the light. The low beams continue to work perfectly. I'll see what I come up with tomorrow and post it to see if it helps with the diagnosis. Thanks for your help so far!

 

hmmmm i hope mine dont do this when i install them tomorrow.

 

I doubt they will, I think I found the culprit and it's a HUGE facepalm on my part

When I installed my PIAA lights 4 years ago, I spliced into the high beam wire to trip my relay (so the lights can only be on when the high beams are on). Well, I had forgotten about that splice and I think (hope) that the relay took a dump and is what is causing the short. I'll confirm in a little bit.

 

And... I'm an idiot

The PIAA relay took a dump on me and that caused the problem. The timing was just pure coincidence. I cut out the old relay and installed a standard Autozone replacement and everything works fine again.

Joe, thanks for trying to help me out!

 

and that's the kind of reason I'm afraid to mess with the electrical stuff

 

Glad it was something simple. FWIW, when I tap into something that is factory and "mission critical", even if it's just triggering a relay, I add an inline fuse at that location. All my aux lighting installs include a 3 or 5 amp fuse where I tapped into the high beams, low beams, parking lights, etc.

 

Meh, I'll still continue to mess with electrical stuff (I've got a heated mirror install coming up ). The timing of this was what made it pain in the ass. Usually, when you have electrical problems and you just added something on that circuit, the new addition is the culprit and the place to start troubleshooting. The timing of this was bad luck!

 

Glad you got it figured out and that it was pretty simple to fix!

 

install was all good for me!!! thank god!

 

Glad to hear it! I still don't have high beams on mine since my last fiasco... Now, when I flip the high beams, they just stay on low beam. FML This one should be an easy fix, just need to poke around with a test light and figure out where I'm losing power in the circuit.

 

Bump, saga isn't over yet... The high beams don't work. I got out a test light and the high beam circuit is getting juice through the stock plug (I tested for power on the TRS side of the plug and I have good power there). I will call TRS tomorrow and see what they say. Their harness is getting power but the solenoids aren't doing what they should. I'll post back with their comments.

 

Have you tried unplugging the connector, then hooking the pos/neg from the solenoid straight to the battery just to see if they are functional? I did this prior to my install just to make sure they would flip down.

 

I thought about that but I wasn't sure exactly how the solenoid worked (meaning I wasn't sure if the solenoid required steady power or they just got a single jolt of power to flip the shield). They were working fine so I know the solenoids were able to cycle fine at one point.

EDIT: Parboy, good call. I just got off the phone with TRS and they told me to connect the solenoid directly to the battery and see if they cycle that way and also check the voltage going to the solenoid (should be 12V or a little higher). At least I know where to start looking. I think when my relay fried, I may have done something to the TRS control box but that's just speculation at this point.

 

On mine, I just touched the wires to the battery and the shields flip down as long as power is applied. As soon as you take the wires off the battery, they flip back up. Hopefully they will flip for you, meaning it's something outside the headlight assembly you can fix or replace and not have to tear the lights apart! I'm betting that is the case.