Need Help with Driving Lights

[Clemsonfan15]

Since I really couldn't get any good pictures of mine, I found some online.

Raptor brand 35w hid kit, Hella 700 retrofit - Expedition Portal Forum

You can see how the pattern is pretty much flat at first, but when you put the HID kit in the pattern turns into a different shape.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

So after working for three weeks both of the lights suddenly stopped working.

I was driving in the snow on Christmas just cruising around and out of no where they both cut off at the same time. I took it home and found a blown fuse. Replaced that today, but they didn't work.

I'm wondering if I blew the ballasts or something. Could water have seeped somewhere where it should not go?

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I did some troubleshooting today and still couldn't get them to work right.

The first thing I did was buy a new relay. Put the new one on and no luck. I put the old one back on and could hear it clicking when flipping the switch so I'm pretty sure that the relay is still good.

I then switched all the wires between the lights and ballasts to see if one of the ballasts or lights might be bad, but that wasn't it either.

After that I hooked up the ballasts to my other HIDs wiring and BOTH of them worked. That tells me that the grounds for the two lights are good, but the the ballasts may not be getting power.

I don't know what to check to see if power is coming through the relay to the ballasts for the fog lights.

*The ballasts work
*The lights work
*The grounds for the lights are good

The only two other things that I can think of are a bad relay ground or that the ballasts are not getting power from the relay.

Anybody know how to check to see if the ballasts are getting power?

 

[GottaBeTRD]

dang man that sucks! With all the stuff you have connected to your battery, do you have metal spacers or washers in between each aux connection on on your posaitvie terminal? If not I wonder if everything touching alters the connection for some reason?

 

[Clemsonfan15]

dang man that sucks! With all the stuff you have connected to your battery, do you have metal spacers or washers in between each aux connection on on your posaitvie terminal? If not I wonder if everything touching alters the connection for some reason?

Good idea. Do you?

I have no idea if that makes a difference or not.

 

[GottaBeTRD]

yeah, my connections already had little square metal washers on the ground connection and on the positive terminal so i just rearranged it so that the different things weren't touching each other. I wonder if two of your aux connections just overpowered the circuit (or whatever it is) and caused your fuse to blow?

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Ok. I finally got smart and bought a DMM and did a little testing today.

I used the continuity setting to test my three grounds and they are all good. I then checked my constant 12V going to my switch and it had 12.58V at the switch. I then tested the trigger wire at the switch and at the relay and it had 12.57V. That means that the wire is continuous and is getting power.

As I already knew, the relay is good because I hear it clicking when turning it on and off.

I then checked to see if the power wire going to the lights was continuous and it was.

When I tried to check the voltage of going to the light plug from the relay it was showing 0V.

So I turned the switch back off and tested the fuse that is in the wire going from the battery to the relay. The fuse was good. After that I checked to see if the wire going from the battery to the relay was continuous and it wasn't. So I took out the fuse and tested the wire in sections. The first section going from the battery to fuse was good. The second section going from the fuse to relay was not continuous.

I didn't have time to see what was wrong after that because it was getting dark.

Any ideas on why the second half would not be continuous?

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I know it hard to understand a description over the internet, but nobody has ideas?

I went back and checked the wire going from the battery to the relay that has the fuse in line. It turns out that both sections are fine. But when I added the fuse and checked for continuity, one section was not continuous. I think the problem is that the fuse is not making contact with the base of the wire.

So I went out and bought one of these:20-Amp Heavy-Duty Inline Fuse Holder for 1¼x¼" Fuses - RadioShack.com

An inline fuse holder.

I think I'm going to slice that into the wire and see if that solves the problem.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I took some pictures incase anyone was interested.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Finally got them working again today. I had to splice in a new fuse holder for the wire going from the battery to the relay. I think the last time the fuse blew a lot of heat was temporally created and it melted the plastic and allowed the wire to go all the way to the bottom of one of the ends of the holder. Because the wire was all the way down, the fuse could not make contact with it and therefore power was not sent to the relay.

I noticed that my 35 watt 5,000K lights look bluer than my 55 watt 5,000K lights. I knew that going up to 55 watt would make the color whiter, but I didn't know it would effect it as much as it does. I'll try and get some pictures later.

 

[Ron Helmuth]

Sounds like you're learning some good diagnosis skills along the way.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Yep. I definitely learned a lot by just reading online. Pretty much mastered DMMs and SPST relays by doing all this.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Just a couple more pictures showing how my new 35 watt 5,000K kit in my headlights compares to the Hellas.

Much brighter I think.

Before with Silverstar Ultras:

After with 35 watt 5,000K DDM HID kit:

 

[jeeper1]

only part of the hella harness id keep is to the switch green wire is a fused 12v source

Thanks Clemson for the thread!

I had it wired up like this, but instead of the aux box, I had an inline fuse box that connected to the battery. Do you think that the battery is to strong for the inline fuse box? I'm thinking not because the fuse thats blowing is the red line from relay to battery. I dont know why its blowing.

I think it could be my grounds that could be the culprit. But I dremeled all new locations clear of paint. I think I will try what you did and hooked them to the factory bolts as a ground. I will have to try next week as we are leaving out of town this long weekend and I wont be able to get busy on it.

thanks again!

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Does your switch light up? If so then it needs a ground too. It was a little tricky finding one close by, but I found a bolt under the dash.

Another thing to check is that the wires going to the switch are on the right pins. AKA: Top, middle, bottom.

 

[jeeper1]

Yup, the switch lights up and the relay works. I have tried all combinations on the switch connections and nothing. I will have to check the grounds. Thats my last bet.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I just wanted to update this thread.

My old mounts weren't very secure. When I would hit a bump the lights would jump around a lot. I decided to take them off sometime over the summer and haven't put them back on till now.

I needed to find another place to mount them. Even though drilling holes in the bumper would have been easiest, I didn't want the holes to be permanent. I also didn't want to spend $250+ on the Defiant light bar.

I've spent a long time coming up with options that didn't leave permanent holes. Today I finally put it all together. I don't have pictures yet since I just finished up a few minutes ago and it's too dark to take pictures of the mounts.

What I did was buy 8" long "L" brackets. These things are sturdy. They came with three holes on side, but I had to drill in an extra hole to get the right height.

I mounted them where the horns are. I reused the same bolts. I relocated the horns to a lower hole on the "L" bracket. Sitting just like that they were pretty strong, however I wanted to make them as strong as I could.

To do this I measured from an "L" bracket hole to one of the holes in a bracket that comes off the lower part of the radiator. I bought some mending brackets from Lowe's that were 4" long. Luckily the holes in the "L" bracket and the mending bracket lined up. I bolted everything together and it felt very tight.

So now the bracket comes out of the bottom of the grill and sticks out just enough to mount the lights on. I think they look really good.

Total cost was somewhere in the $30-40 range. Not too bad.

I think this would be a great solution for guys who don't want to drill into their bumper.

 

[GottaBeTRD]

I can't wait to see these man! Maybe I can finally get rid of the brush guard!!

 

[Clemsonfan15]

As long as these are as sturdy as I think they are, they are definitely the way to go.

Everything you need can be bought from Lowe's.

Pictures probably won't be up till late tomorrow or Sunday. I'll be tailgating all day tomorrow.

 

[Dezert4Runner]

I used the horn mounting holes for mine too with my "L" shaped brackets, but bolted them to pieces of flat steel. They still shake a little, so eventually I'll be replacing the steel with something else. Looking forward to seeing your mounting setup.