2014 Laramie Chews Up HID Components Every 6 Months

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AzRamLover

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Hoping to find others with the same problem and a solution. It seems like about every 6 months, the truck chews up an HID component and spits it out.

Initial Setup
- TRS kit (Morimoto 50W AMP Ballasts, Ignitors, and 6000K bulbs)

~6 months
- Driver side ignitor fails
- Replaced with new Morimoto ignitor

~7 months
- Passenger side ignitor and ballast fail
- Replaced with new Morimoto ignitor & ballast

~12 months
- Driver side ballast fails
- Replaced *all* components with TRS OEM Grade kit (Denso potted ballasts, 4300K bulbs)

~18 months (this morning)
- Passenger side light stopped working

Any ideas?
 

Nick@GotExhaust

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Seems odd for sure. Have you had any other electrical issues with the truck or have you added any other items that put draw on your electric system?

Double check all connections especially your grounds


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AzRamLover

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Seems odd for sure. Have you had any other electrical issues with the truck or have you added any other items that put draw on your electric system?

Double check all connections especially your grounds


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No other issues with the truck; only have some LEDs in the truck bed to help with loading/unloading.
 

baum

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Have you tried to relay the input the ballast? i know back in the day doges couldnt supply enough power for some of the higher wattage bulbs.
 
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AzRamLover

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May give that a shot - thanks!
 

quietpeen

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are you using dielectric grease on all your connections?
 
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AzRamLover

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are you using dielectric grease on all your connections?

No I'm not - I will remedy this on my next teardown.

On the plus side, I'm flipping *great* at taking her apart and replacing things lighting related now. =)
 

quietpeen

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yea its a huge perceived pain in the ass the first and second time tearing apart, but after that it seems pretty easy lol
 

adrianp89

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I am with Baum - I would assume it is a power issue. I have no issues with my Morimoto set from RetroShop... coming up on 18 months soon.
 
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AzRamLover

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I am with Baum - I would assume it is a power issue. I have no issues with my Morimoto set from RetroShop... coming up on 18 months soon.

Makes sense. I'm running the canbus adapters bc I'm too lazy to wire up the relays and capacitors.

Maybe I'll go to the relay and capacitor route if the truck spits out another component in another 6 months.

Sure would be nice to have OEM HID or LED . . . I think they fixed it on the next Gen coming out.
 

skuppy069

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I would consider trying the hylux 2a88 ballasts . I have a 2016 ram 1500 and these ballasts are great . Low inrush current is a built into these ballasts and work great even at -35 degree Celsius .
That’s my experience anyways with these ballasts .
Cheers .
 
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AzRamLover

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Thanks for the suggestion!

The light magically started working again this morning so that obviously rules out the bulb.

Probably dealing with a loose connection this time but I'll have to wait until the weekend to tear into it.
 
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AzRamLover

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I would consider trying the hylux 2a88 ballasts . I have a 2016 ram 1500 and these ballasts are great . Low inrush current is a built into these ballasts and work great even at -35 degree Celsius .
That’s my experience anyways with these ballasts .
Cheers .

Guess what? The lower temps (~50 F in the mornings) have resurrected issues, both sides affected. I'm definitely taking your suggestion.

First lighting start in the morning is total struggle bus - driver's side takes ~10 sec of flickering to ignite and hold. Pax side takes ~60 sec of ignite, extinguish, & repeat to finally ignite and hold. Once held, both sides are good for the entire drive in (~25 min).

Then again, maybe it has nothing to do w/ temps and it's just gremlins.

In any case, I'm taking your suggestion to try the 2A88s.

Major props to TRS (The Retrofit Source) for hooking me up with a pair to try to troubleshoot the Densoes (what is the grammatically correct plural of "Denso?").
 

00R/T

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The Hylux ballasts are excellent. They are what I would be running if I needed aftermarket ballasts. I always try to stick to OEM if I can, though.
 
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AzRamLover

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The Hylux ballasts are excellent. They are what I would be running if I needed aftermarket ballasts. I always try to stick to OEM if I can, though.

Agreed - that's why I shelled out the big bucks for the Denso ballasts and had them waterproofed by TRS.

Unfortunately, you can see things aren't working out that hot.

Hopefully the 2A88s will end my semi-annual headlight rebuilding.
 

00R/T

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I wouldn’t rule out the bulbs so quickly. My friend was having tons of issues that seemed like they were related to wiring and/or the ballasts. It turns out he was running some knockoff OSRAM bulbs and they were the problem. We put in real ones and they’ve been rock solid since.

However, it could be a power issue. I don’t think anyone has had good luck running any OEM ballasts (and many aftermarket ones) without relays. My truck wouldn’t even allow my bulbs to fully ignite until I reprogrammed the BCM for HIDs. It apparently had an issue with the current draw at startup and was shutting them down.
 

skuppy069

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The Hylux ballast are the safest i think .
I amp Meterd the two ballasts .
Morimoto pulled almost double the inrush current than the hyluk 2a88 at start up .
My suspension is over driving the output from the vehicle wiring .
Has short circuit protection ,miss fire protection etc .

Cheers
 
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