HID ballast placement?
- Thread starter CDJuda
- Start date
I just keep mine sort of loose behind the headlight. Haven't had any issues. All the wiring has clips tho, so they can't come undone easily. Same thing with my resistors for the LED switchbacks. Just kinda hangin out. 
My fogs are just sitting on the frame rail for the truck in a little cavity so they cannot fall out or anything. For the bi-xenon ballast I have it so the one on the passenger side rests between the foam for the AC line and the intake box as it was a nice tight area that I put it there. For the drivers side I have it so one side is stuck into the edge of the battery tray so its like wedged up on the battery and into the little cavity of the tray. I do not have the stock battery cover installed since I upgraded to an aftermarket battery.
I am in the same boat as RayGumm. My headlight ballasts hangout behind the headlight, been that way for the last 5 years since I have been running HIDs. Same with the resistors for the LED turn signals.
Not sure if you have fog lights, but those ballasts and wires are the ones I worried about using zip ties on. I wanted to make sure the ballasts were in the driest spot possible. Below is a pic of how my ballasts are positioned for my fogs.
Not sure if you have fog lights, but those ballasts and wires are the ones I worried about using zip ties on. I wanted to make sure the ballasts were in the driest spot possible. Below is a pic of how my ballasts are positioned for my fogs.
My Morimoto ballasts came with a metal mounting strap. Attached those to the ballast, drilled a hole in the plastic headlight assembly bracket, and mounted them with the included bolt and nut. With the headlight removed, you can see both ballasts for the driver's side.
My flog light ballasts are laying flat underneath those, and unsecured. There's enough stuff on top of them to keep them in place. They don't see any use anyway due to the quad retrofit.
My flog light ballasts are laying flat underneath those, and unsecured. There's enough stuff on top of them to keep them in place. They don't see any use anyway due to the quad retrofit.
fogs are easy. there is a little shelf in front of the tire ro the outside of the fog. Drilled two holes and zip tied it to that shelf. The headlights i used the hole in the triangular piece that extends behind the headlight and hung it from there. Will post pics later today.
exactly where I placed mine, but with zip ties...Blckshdw said:My Morimoto ballasts came with a metal mounting strap. Attached those to the ballast, drilled a hole in the plastic headlight assembly bracket, and mounted them with the included bolt and nut. With the headlight removed, you can see both ballasts for the driver's side.
My flog light ballasts are laying flat underneath those, and unsecured. There's enough stuff on top of them to keep them in place. They don't see any use anyway due to the quad retrofit.
Has everyone here done the DRL killer? I tried reconnecting everything but sometimes my right headlight won't pop on, just the HID bulb.
I've been running these things for 2 years without the DRL killer not even knowing that would have been nessisary.
The manufacturer said they would just give me a new one if I needed it.
What's your guys take?
I've been running these things for 2 years without the DRL killer not even knowing that would have been nessisary.
The manufacturer said they would just give me a new one if I needed it.
What's your guys take?
Just before I start Cutting into stuff..
The capacitor I bought.
'
The wire connected to the BCM on the plug connected closest to the floor of the vehicle.
pink with white stripe.
positive goes side of the cap goes into the pink wire, and the negative side gets grounded.
The capacitor I bought.
The wire connected to the BCM on the plug connected closest to the floor of the vehicle.
pink with white stripe.
positive goes side of the cap goes into the pink wire, and the negative side gets grounded.
You got it right for the cap mod. I did that and it didn't work as expected. I still had some ripple and I got a bigger cap to the same result. Nobody else has had that problem like I did from what I can see so don't be alarmed by it and do like you posted. I myself don't like using wire taps and rather splice and solder my connections but there is no problem with a wire tap here for it being such low amperage.
For grounding, what I did was take one of the little nuts off that hold the BCM to the floor and secure one end of the cap to bolt on the floor. I measured the resistance and it was 0 ohms for that bolt so its a great ground. Now for your cap you need it to be polarized. This means that for the cap you chose, the leg that is shorter than the other is the negative side and needs to be connected to ground on the body of the truck. Another way to know which wire on the cap is negative is to look at the label and you will see a stripe with (-) on it, that shows you the side of the cap that is negative which corresponds to the leg on the cap.
In regards to how you did the cap mod and had one light with problems firing, I would try swapping the ballasts from one side to the other and see if it remains the passenger side that does not fire or if it transitions over to the driver side that does not fire. If it remains the passenger side then you may have a bad relay (if you use them) or you could have a bad wire between the ballast and the bulb. If it transitions then you more than likely have a bad ballast. I found too on my truck with one ballast I had that was bad was that in the cold when my trucks voltage would be up in the 15's when ice cold the one ballast would take a few fires before it would ignite the bulb. If i stopped the engine and turned the lights on they would fire just fine with the voltage being below the 15's. It was weird. Other than that it would work perfectly for me every time. I keep the ballast as a spare now. Some other food for thought, if your ballasts are floating around, make sure they are not laying on the bumper rail, frame, anywhere metal that is the grounding point of the truck. I also noticed one of my ballasts had something weird where if I set the ballast on the frame it would arc a tiny bit and make the light output go down a little bit. One day I accidentally had my finger between the ballast and the frame and got a nice shock from it. It was an easy fix, just tighten the screws on the ballast a little and secure it off the frame.
For grounding, what I did was take one of the little nuts off that hold the BCM to the floor and secure one end of the cap to bolt on the floor. I measured the resistance and it was 0 ohms for that bolt so its a great ground. Now for your cap you need it to be polarized. This means that for the cap you chose, the leg that is shorter than the other is the negative side and needs to be connected to ground on the body of the truck. Another way to know which wire on the cap is negative is to look at the label and you will see a stripe with (-) on it, that shows you the side of the cap that is negative which corresponds to the leg on the cap.
In regards to how you did the cap mod and had one light with problems firing, I would try swapping the ballasts from one side to the other and see if it remains the passenger side that does not fire or if it transitions over to the driver side that does not fire. If it remains the passenger side then you may have a bad relay (if you use them) or you could have a bad wire between the ballast and the bulb. If it transitions then you more than likely have a bad ballast. I found too on my truck with one ballast I had that was bad was that in the cold when my trucks voltage would be up in the 15's when ice cold the one ballast would take a few fires before it would ignite the bulb. If i stopped the engine and turned the lights on they would fire just fine with the voltage being below the 15's. It was weird. Other than that it would work perfectly for me every time. I keep the ballast as a spare now. Some other food for thought, if your ballasts are floating around, make sure they are not laying on the bumper rail, frame, anywhere metal that is the grounding point of the truck. I also noticed one of my ballasts had something weird where if I set the ballast on the frame it would arc a tiny bit and make the light output go down a little bit. One day I accidentally had my finger between the ballast and the frame and got a nice shock from it. It was an easy fix, just tighten the screws on the ballast a little and secure it off the frame.
Great post! thank you! The Cap is installed as far as I know, is there any way to verify that it's actually working? I used one of the splicing clips and I know they don't always bite through, so I'm just wanting to make sure this thing is acutally doing it's job.kickass audio said:
You can change the settings in your DIC, but on mine the parking lights flash only during the day when you hit the unlock button. During dusk/night time hours my parking lights will flash and headlights will come on. The capacitor should not affect whether the headlights turn off or on.CDJuda said:When I hit the unlock button during the day the headlights don't pop on, is that a sign that it isn't working???
Sorry still a little confusing to me...
I am not sure how vehicles without the DIC are setup or if it is possible to change the settings.
Prior to doing the cap mod, when I would hit the unlock button at dusk/night and my HIDs would turn on, I could hear a loud buzzing sound coming from the ballasts. After installing the capacitor, the buzzing sound went away.
The way to validate the cap mod would be to get a tech2 scan tool like may03 has which is not cheap. Another way to validate would be to get a fast o-scope and look for any oscillation in the voltage. If the waveform is nice and steady then you successfully performed the cap mod.
As far as unlocking your truck in the day, I do not believe the headlights will come on at all. I think it should only be your parking lamps. I cannot say as my lights are bypassed with the relay so that they only come on when I throw the switch all the way to the right. I do know that my reverse lights only illuminate on unlock when its dark enough out so it leads me to believe that only the illuminated entry is possible when its dark enough for the photo resistor on the dash to recognize darkness and make the lights kick on to help light your path.
As far as unlocking your truck in the day, I do not believe the headlights will come on at all. I think it should only be your parking lamps. I cannot say as my lights are bypassed with the relay so that they only come on when I throw the switch all the way to the right. I do know that my reverse lights only illuminate on unlock when its dark enough out so it leads me to believe that only the illuminated entry is possible when its dark enough for the photo resistor on the dash to recognize darkness and make the lights kick on to help light your path.
Poor man's testing method, is have someone (you trust! 
) turn on the truck, and shift into drive while applying the brake and you stand in front of the truck. DRLs should come on. Then have them toggle the headlight switch to manually activate the low beams. You shouldn't see a change in brightness.
Your low beams may or may not activate when unlocking the vehicle, depending on how your perimeter lighting preferences are setup within the cluster. As mentioned, with the DIC, you can change this. Question is, did your low beams come on before when you had stock bulbs? If they did, then they should do the same now with the capacitor mod installed correctly.
) turn on the truck, and shift into drive while applying the brake and you stand in front of the truck. DRLs should come on. Then have them toggle the headlight switch to manually activate the low beams. You shouldn't see a change in brightness.Your low beams may or may not activate when unlocking the vehicle, depending on how your perimeter lighting preferences are setup within the cluster. As mentioned, with the DIC, you can change this. Question is, did your low beams come on before when you had stock bulbs? If they did, then they should do the same now with the capacitor mod installed correctly.
I think it's working, the right headlight would only come on like 50 percent of the time when I turned the truck on before the CAP mod. So far it's turned on every time and I've turned the truck on like 5 times today.Blckshdw said:Poor man's testing method, is have someone (you trust!
Your low beams may or may not activate when unlocking the vehicle, depending on how your perimeter lighting preferences are setup within the cluster. As mentioned, with the DIC, you can change this. Question is, did your low beams come on before when you had stock bulbs? If they did, then they should do the same now with the capacitor mod installed correctly.
The ground wire is bolted on to the rear seat bracket, and the wires are held onto the bolt using a zip tie. Kinda janky but it doesn't move at all and it's working great at the moment.
Big question now is what mod comes next... Custom tail lights maybe? My buddy is pretty good with arduino boards so I might see if a sequential tail light mod would be possible. Kinda like the ones the mustangs have.
Thanks for everybody's help with this!
No a multimeter would not work for this as they respond too slow and you need something fast to recognize the change in waveform. Only way to see a waveform is with an o-scope. You could do like blackshadow suggested with putting your stock halogens back in for a moment and turn the truck to run with the engine off and parking brake engaged and switch it into drive and then have someone flip the light switch all the way. If you did the mod right there will be no change in brightness from the low beams, if you did it wrong you will notice that when just in gear the lights will be slightly dimmer than when you flip the switch to turn them on manually.
Some cheaper ballasts also will make a very loud humming noise if you did not do the cap mod right as it will still get that AC signal form to make it so the ballast wants to turn on and off very fast and it will burn them out if you leave it that way. Some others have reported of hearing fast clicking noises from their relays they use to turn on the HID's.
Your next mod honestly I would say is to upgrade your lights to all LED's. It brightened up my interior so much that its blinding at night when the inside lamps turn on. Only downside is with my bulbs if you press the map light it is so dim that its useless to see anything with but I never use them anyway so im good. Don't forget though that you need a load resistor for switching your turn signal bulbs to LED's or you will get hyperflash and you more than likely have CK style stop lamps in the back so you need to get CK bulbs for those.
Some cheaper ballasts also will make a very loud humming noise if you did not do the cap mod right as it will still get that AC signal form to make it so the ballast wants to turn on and off very fast and it will burn them out if you leave it that way. Some others have reported of hearing fast clicking noises from their relays they use to turn on the HID's.
Your next mod honestly I would say is to upgrade your lights to all LED's. It brightened up my interior so much that its blinding at night when the inside lamps turn on. Only downside is with my bulbs if you press the map light it is so dim that its useless to see anything with but I never use them anyway so im good. Don't forget though that you need a load resistor for switching your turn signal bulbs to LED's or you will get hyperflash and you more than likely have CK style stop lamps in the back so you need to get CK bulbs for those.