Anyone else experiencing problems with Morimoto xB HIDs?

I've had my Morimoto elite kit installed for about a year, and with the temps finally cooling down here in Vegas, I'm having intermittent fail-to-fire issues with my driver's side headlight. I can get it to fire if I turn the headlights off for a minute, then turn them back on again. Sometimes it takes a few rounds of that to get it to fire. I am running a relay harness installed, drawing power directly from the battery. I already submitted a ticket to theretrofitsource about it, but I'm just gathering info for myself, as a sort of research point and/or an argument if TRS uncharacteristically decides to give me the run around. I don't expect that to happen, however,, since their customer service has been historically fantastic.

Last time I had this issue was with a set of Morimoto 3Five ballasts I got in 2013, and I had the same issue where, when the temps dropped, my passenger side wouldn't fire upon initial activation, but would be alleviated by the same method. When I submitted a ticket back then, they said that the igniter in the ballast didn't always put out the necessary 16KV to produce a stable arc in the bulb, and that they redesigned the ballasts to put out 23KV to ensure proper arc production.

I wonder if these ballasts are subject to the same issues

So i have the same kit on both my civic and crv, both of them experienced issues with the relay. Both replaced under warranty...same symptoms you are experiencing.

I have the same setup on my 2017 civic and i do get that problem also, most of the time when i am away from the car for a while i get that problem and somtimes they both ignite at the same time no problem, since its super cold here in Canada now it takes a few turns to ignite the drivers side. I used to have this problem on my other car with the same setup and the problem was probably a bad bulb, since i switched the ballast, igniter and bulb to the the passenger side fired it up and the passenger side didn't fire up, bought new bulbs from morimoto and never had a problem since.

I am having the same issues as well. TRS recommended swapping the left and right ballasts. I just haven't had the time to do so. I am assuming this will help isolate the problem at the ballast or the bulb.

Whoa, same exact thing happens to me. I'll try the ballast swap with week end

Got a reply fro, them this morning. I'm gonna try the ballast swap tomorrow or thursday and see what happens.

I'm installing the Morimoto H11B bulbs with Hylux 35 watt ballast and have been informed by my source that a relay was not required as he says "adding more stuff that could possibly fail". From reading so many threads if a relay harness is required, it looks like if I 'm using only a 35 watt ballast; a relay is not required and that the headlights should be manually turned than putting them on auto.

What are your thoughts on this and what ballast are you all using?

Btw; I reside in Manitoba, Can where our temperatures drop as low to -40 Celsius.

I've had more problems with HID systems without a relay harness. Didn't matter if I was running 35w or 55w ballasts. Sure, it's one more point of failure, but on the flip side, you get power directly from the battery to the ballasts. The only problems I've ever had while running a relay harness was ballast or bulb related issues.

Then again, the coldest any one of my cars saw with an HID system was 0F (~-18C), and that was back in 2004/2005

xRiCeBoYx said:

I've had more problems with HID systems without a relay harness. Didn't matter if I was running 35w or 55w ballasts. Sure, it's one more point of failure, but on the flip side, you get power directly from the battery to the ballasts. The only problems I've ever had while running a relay harness was ballast or bulb related issues.

Then again, the coldest any one of my cars saw with an HID system was 0F (~-18C), and that was back in 2004/2005

Click to expand...

I've heard people mentioning about how the OEM wiring is thin and may cause a fire, has this even been confirmed? What brands of ballasts and bulbs have you tried?

I've been having trouble with my driver's side firing as well. I got in touch with them last week and was assured that warranty would take care of me but to try and troubleshoot to pin down the culprit. At the time I swapped ballast and igniters one by one. The issue seemed to follow the ballast but I didn't leave them longer than the initial troubleshooting. Just swapped ballasts now and will let it ride for the rest of the week and see.

That didn't take long. Swapped out and now otherside is dead. Going to try and give then a call before they close.

Just got off the phone with TRS, they're sending a new ballast out asap and I'll just have to provide a photo of the old ballast with the connectors broken off. EZPZ.

One thing I noticed is that my driver side ballast will not work at all if the headlights are set to auto. It will fail 100% of the time. If I turn on the headlights manually, they will only malfunction about 5% of the time

TRS is good with warranties, with ballast they will have you destroy it and send a picture before they send out a new one. With relays they just ship em out, no trouble.

I bought the Morimoto H11B bulbs from TRS and used existing ballasts I had. I haven't had a single issue with bulbs themselves. I did however receive a single bulb in a box that was absolutely soaked. Of the 4 boxes, 3 were bone dry and one was completely wet. I let it dry out and it seems to work, but I'll most likely call them to see about replacing it.