Driver Side Light out on retrofitted headlight

Tim Abadie

Well-Known Member
84
76
Jupiter, FL
Vehicle Model
FB6
After about a year and a half of successful use the driver side headlight on my retrofitted mini H1 headlights went out. I replaced the bulb, it was still without power. Any idea what this could be? Is it the ballast maybe? The ballast is only about a year and a half old. Thanks for the help!
 
The easiest thing you can do is do a little swapping. Since the new bulb didn't fix it, swap the ballast from the good working side over to the side where the light is out. See if that will power you bulb. Are you using a wire/relay harness with your setup? Some harnesses have 2 fuses that can blow, as well as the relay themselves going bad. We need a little more info
 
I tried powering a working bulb from the same ballast and it didnt light. I am using a Canbus: Morimoto Standalone wiring harness.
 
okay, so there are no fuses involved in that harness. It looks like it just has a resistor in it to mimic a halogen bulb. I don't think that part would have anything to do with it not firing the bulb, as it's just meant to cancel out dash errors on some vehicles. So, if you know you have a functioning bulb on that ballast, then the ballast is going to be bad. You can try removing that harness on the side that is out. Directly plug your oem headlight wiring into the ballast if you want to verify that resistor isn't bad in some way, but I doubt it. Your ballast is likely just dead. Is it a morimoto ballast?
 
Yes it is a morimoto ballast, the AMP XB35 2.0. Thanks for all your help here, I really appreciate it!
contact TRS. That ballast has a 2yr warranty on it. They should swap it for you no problem.
 
Update: So I have trhe new bulbs in and when I flicked on the headlights tonight the driver side came on and shone bright all the way home. To test it out I shut them off then tried turning them on again and it wouldnt power on. Only once every several attempts. Could this be a loose wire or still just a bad ballast not igniting the bulb?
 
Update: So I have trhe new bulbs in and when I flicked on the headlights tonight the driver side came on and shone bright all the way home. To test it out I shut them off then tried turning them on again and it wouldnt power on. Only once every several attempts. Could this be a loose wire or still just a bad ballast not igniting the bulb?

Still just the one side or both sides not turning on at random?

You don’t have a wire harness, so you’re plugged directly into the oem headlight wiring. You have no ground/power wires or anything to come loose like you could have with an aftermarket harness.

I’m guessing you don’t see physical damage or anything on your wires? Pull the ballast plug out of your oem plug. Pop a halogen bulb on the end of the oem headlight plug. Does it light up fine? You don’t even need to mess with putting it in the headlight or anything. That can at least confirm the oem wiring is fine.
 
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