Morimoto HID troubleshooting - newbie problems

Hi everyone! I've been a stocker on this site for months but this is my first new thread. Unfortunately, it's because I'm having problems with my HID install...

I installed Morimoto XB35 ballasts, TRS relay harness and TRS 4300K H11B bulbs this afternoon, and after two or three hours of fiddling and zip-tying everything I tested the lights, and the driver's side wont stay lit. The driver side just flickers once and stays off, but the passenger's side lights just fine. I'm trying to figure out if: (A) my installation is wrong, or (B) if somethings broken. I'm using the relay and have the power attached to the positive terminal in the lower left covered compartment inside the fuse box. The driver's side is grounded at a bolt on the fender above the drivers side headlight. The drivers side ballast is hooked up to the igniter which is connected to the bulb, and the ballast is also connected to the relay harness. The same goes for the passenger side, but its ground on a bolt beneath the coolant reservoir. The OEM plug that used to connect to the drivers side halogen bulb is also connected to the harness. I think I got everything hooked up right, after hours of reading everyone's super helpful install posts =)

So to troubleshoot, I swapped the passenger's and driver's side ballasts and the drivers side bulb still flickers but wont light. I put the ballasts back then just swap the igniters, but still no light on the drivers side. By now it's super dark out and I can't see a thing. Could it be a bad bulb or a bad grounding spot on the drivers side? The passenger side seem to work fine so at least that half seems ok. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks for the suggestions xliderider! After putting the last zip tie I just about kicked myself for not testing everything first - that's truly a good rule of thumb for everything =)

First thing tomorrow I'll try swapping bulbs. I don't have a multimeter though and I'm not sure I'd know how to use one. I just hope TRS is nice about warranty claims on defective items if it comes down to that.

 

Ok! I finally got it working! It's turns out both bulbs and the grounding location for both passenger and driver sides are fine... A contact in the cable connecting the bulb to the igniter was loose- there's a plastic seal that had come slightly undone and the wire was too far down in the connector housing to make a good contact.

 

• I like the color - it starts blue then goes to a white. It's definitely whiter than stock and has no visible blue to it at all. The beam shape on the road is similar to stock, maybe a bit narrower. Also, it doesn't seem to come up as close to the front bumber as before, but I didn't measure it so it could just be perception. There is a brighter spot right in front of the car where the beams overlap but it's not distracting and not so obvious as to be annoying. No sign of the ground wire at all! I guess TRS did really solve the problem with the H11B bulbs. When projected against a wide wall, there is clearly a 'bowing up' of the cutoff line at the far edges of the beam as described in previous posts, but doesnt seem to go above the belt line of most passenger cars. The 'squirrel finders' are obvious though, when you're close up to a wall. This all has to do with the halogen projectors from what I've read.

Overall, I'm very happy with the lights - now that they're working!

My installation rant below...
One thing that drove me up the wall when installing the relay is that the length of the wire that extends from the drivers side to the passenger side (to the ballast, ground and bulb) is like 6-10" shorter than it should be. I wanted to put both ballasts behind the black plastic pieces on the side of the fender but that would mean putting the relay between the inverter and the ICE and that seems like a hot unwelcoming place for it. So I put the passenger side ballast and igniter right behind the headlight strung with zipties and the drivers side in the plastic fender piece. There simply isn't much room in the engine bay for anything, so I hung the relay from the left front of the fuse box with zipties. Even finding a ground for the drivers side other than the one in the rain gutter above the headlight was hard, and I couldn't find bolts that fit in the threaded holes beneath the fuse box because those are metric? (it is from japan after all). I spent an half an hour staring at bolts at ACE hardware trying to find ones that fit lol. Anywho, it's all done and I hope nothing ever goes wrong so that I'll never have to undo the million zipties I put up haha!

Thanks for your troubleshooting suggestions xliderider!

 

I was wondering about the 5000K bulbs, it's hard to judge based on pictures alone sometimes. I wonder what other companies make HID bulbs that fit into the OEM halogen housing and are compatible with the plugs that come with the Morimoto igniters?