low beam issue

Truck started doing something weird tonight and i’m not sure why.
When i turn the low beams on they don’t go on.. with the low beam switch turned on and i click the highbeam stalk on the highbeams go on… When i turn the highbeams off i have my low beams and everything works as it should.

2010 offroad and i have aftermarket retrofit hid headlights. So i’m not sure why the low beams don’t turn on when i turn the switch to on. But turn on once i activate and deactivate the high beams.
Everything worked fine last night and for the last 5 years i have had the retros.

Anyone?

 

Are you using an aftermarket relay harness to power the retros?

 

Yeah morimoto.

 

I’m curious if the aftermarket relay is failing to close on the initial low beam voltage, therefore not powering the lights. You could test the input and output of the harness with a multimeter to see if that’s the case in the non-working state.

 

Yeah it’s just super weird everything worked fine last night. As soon as i turn the highbeams on they work properly. and when i turn the highs off the low beams work and everything’s proper.
When i turn the headlights off and then back on i have nothing till i re activate and de activate highs

 

Relays fail, especially aftermarket ones. Without knowing exactly how it is wired with the high beam shutter, my bet is that the high + low through their relay is enough to get it to operate where as the low alone is not. Once the relay is closed to ignite the HID it has no problem staying closed when going from high + low to low only. Basically sounds like the relay may be wearing out. Easy to confirm with the multimeter.

 

It could also be the small solenoid that moves the low beam cutoff shutter. It could be sticking, and hitting your highbeams energizes it and deenergizes it, allowing it to function as intended. But I agree with crash, check the harness relays first. The same may be occuring with the highbeam circuit relay.

 

thinking it could be my relay as well. because now i have to turn the highbeams on and off a few times in order for the low beams to stay on. at first it only needed to cycle once but i just went out earlier and had to cycle about 3 or 4 times

 

well i think the relay no lie just died… went out to try. No low beam and now no highbeams

 

I wouldn’t expect a relay showing signs of failure to last long. At least it is an easy fix.

 

Not HID, but I did actually have both lows go at the same time on my old car and it was the bulbs.

Could be the solenoid as suggested too, a member local to me had that issue.

 

Yeah deff isn’t the bulbs as they did work multiple times tonight. Then everything just stopped working low and high. I just bought a new relay

 

That’s not uncommon in quality halogens. With HID in this case the low and high beam are using the same illuminated bulb and just open/closing a shutter to remove the cut off for high beam.

 

Very true, thinking further my car had a separate bulb for low and for high actually

 

Went out yesterday and my lights intermediately worked. no issues. got out to go into the store came back out they worked fine. Went out to go to another store came back out and they didn’t work.
They turned on fine this morning. So deff has to be my relay harness because it works when it wants to. New harness comes today so i’ll see when i’m able to install.

 

Reviving this thread a i’m having partial issues now…
Replaced the relay back in Jan and everything’s been working perfect.
Yesterday i had no low beams. i messed around and got the pass side to work. driver didn’t.
I put the driver ballast to pass side and vise versa and had same issue.
cycled them on off a few times along with high beam and finally got both lights to work.
Today i turned em on to see if was having any issues. This time driver turned on fine but pass didn’t.
Cycled them a few times and got them both to work.

Any ideas?
my bulbs (osram cbi) are about 5 years old along with the ballasts/igniters.
Maybe time to replace them?

 

Interesting..

@Pugga I know you know your stuff here..any thoughts?

 

Keep in mind i replaced the relay with brand new moto controller in Jan. Haven’t had a single problem with firing on.

Bulbs both clearly work as i just drove home with them on earlier. just weird last night the driver didn’t turn on but pass did. and today the driver turned on but pass didn’t. Then they both worked after a few seconds of on off on off

 

I experienced similar issues when I had HID retrofits and it’s what made me ditch them. My low beams went out and it was the relays. I had the solenoid fail inside the housing also. I came to the conclusion that adding aftermarket wiring into the headlight system isn’t a good idea.
Can you get a halogen bulb onto the original wiring and confirm that both high and low beam circuits work? If it works, your issue is with either the controller or the relays. Since both are malfunctioning, my bet would be the controller. Both relays failing together, at the same time and same manner is unlikely.

 

Yeah i can get a halogen bulb on there to test.
But if my relay is brand new what are the odds that it would work for 6 months and then potentially fail??