DS lights and DRL's not turning on and headlight motor ticking
 

I was finishing up a project last summer of replacing a bad headlight motor and upgrading to HID projectors, LED DRL's and LED fogs when I ran into electrical issues. Basically, the driver's side fog and DRL won't turn on and I'm getting a ticking sound from the headlight motor that I replaced. I disconnected the wiring for that motor and the ticking jumped to the passenger side's headlight motor. Also, I haven't completed the HID projector project because the driver's side HID bulb does not illuminate correctly - it "crackles" as if the connection isn't strong.

Any ideas on what's going on?

Edit: Updating with more info. The ticking is only present when the lights are set to OFF - when set in the PARKING or ON position, the ticking goes away.

Just adding more info: I was reversing everything I did by unplugging all the new additions - HID DRL, HID fogs and HID kit and the first thing I disconnected was the DS DRL. Upon removing of bulb, the ticking goes away - everything else does not matter if it was plugged in or not except for the DS DRL bulb.

While I was redoing all the front lights last year I opted to replace burnt DRL sockets with new Delphi ones - did not splice in. Could this be an issue?

RH and LH Headlamp Fuses are OK.

I'm a bit confused... in one post you say LED fogs and DRLs (turn signals) but in the update you say HID. Those are two very different technologies with different types of problems. Can you confirm?
1. Headlights are HIDs in replacement projector lenses
2. Fog lights are 880/881 LED replacement bulbs
3. Turn signals / DRLs are 3157 LED replacement bulbs
Did you install load resistors or an electronic flasher for the LED signals? Did you install a separate harness and relay for the HID headlights? Any other related modifications?

Thanks WhiteBird00 for your reply. I had a brain fart and I meant to say LED lights in my second post. Just to confirm my setup:

1. Headlights are an HID kit from The Retrofit Source - Morimoto Elite D2S with harness and relays
2. Fog Lights are: (It says it's H4 connector but it was plug and play)
3. Turn Signals/DRL's are 3157 LED bulbs

To answer your last question I did not install a different electronic flasher for the LED's but for the sake of ruling out this as an issue, I placed the standard incandescent bulb back in and still no dice. No other modifications that I could think of although I did disconnect the AIR pump when I was in there installing these components. I see the connections for the AIR pump is tied to the headlight wiring.

Anyone have any ideas? Whitebird00?

D2S? What projectors/housings do you have?

Couldn't get a housing to work with my FX-R's so I bought InfiniteReality's projectors: https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-high-low.html

I'm using a D2S-to-AMP adapter to make it work.

Those projectors are H11 not D2S.

Since you discovered that the left DRL / signal seems to be at the heart of the matter, have you tried putting the original incandescent bulb back to see if it's the LED bulb causing the problem?

I can give you a step by step diagnostic process with a test light or multimeter but let's see what happens after restoring the original bulbs first.

That's correct. Since I had already put money into this D2S kit and installed the wiring, instead of purchasing a different kit, I opted for D2S-to-AMP connectors to use InfiniteReality's projectors. Here's the adapter with the bulb that fits into the projector:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech...d9eba5d7ce.jpg


That would be a huge help if you could assist me - I truly appreciate it.

I went ahead and installed the original incandescent DRL bulbs and the OE fog light housing with the factory incandescent fog bulb. The problem doesn't appear to be tied to the DRL but rather the entire driver side lights:

PS OE Fog light - OK
PS DRL bulb - OK
DS OE fog light - No light
DS DRL bulb - No light
PS & DS headlamps - won't turn open

The bulbs in each housing are still good and I verified this by switching PS bulbs to DS bulbs on both the fogs and DRL's - the bulbs are good but just not turning on when in the DS housings.

The last thing that I haven't mentioned that I replaced was the headlight motor. I purchased the Cardone unit #829125H with serviceable housing. https://www.rockauto.com/en/parts/ca...amp+motor,1412

Thanks in advance.

The one thing that all lights on each side have in common is their ground. The front signals/DRLs, fog lights, and headlights ground through G105 and G106 (right and left respectively) which are bolts on the top of the radiator support on each side. If the left side ground is damaged or disconnected then no lights on that side would work. Check first that the ground point isn't physically damaged (wires broken, bolt loose or missing, corroded, etc.). Then use your meter to test that you get ground at the light sockets. The headlight and fog light connectors are flat so it's fairly easy to determine which contact is for ground - in both cases it's the black wire. The TS/DRL lamps are 3157 sockets which don't have an obvious 1-to-1 wire to pin relation. Standard 3157 sockets as used on GM products have both grounds at one end of the bulb slot and the two pins at the other end are for park (dim) and TS/DRL (bright) power. Sometimes you can see that the ground end has the pins connected to each other but often that connection is not clearly visible so you should check for power first and then the two pins at the other end of the slot will be ground.

If the ground turns out to be good then it would seem that we have separate problems since each of those lamps gets power from different sources. We can eliminate fuses and such because that would affect both sides. So if we have a power problem, it would have to be in the wiring harness someplace between the lamps and the splices where they split left and right side. Those splices are in widely different locations for each of the circuits (the turn signals and DRLs don't have splices as they are separate all the way from the DRL module in the dash) so this seems like an unlikely cause. I'm betting on the problem being on the ground side.

I think we've found our problem! I read your post in the morning about checking the ground connection and it hit me on the drive home - I had wrapped the radiator brace in black satin vinyl and the ground was probably not properly making contact. I checked it and sure enough, it wasn't. Both LED fogs are working and both DRL's with incandescent bulbs are working now! I'll have to wait and see if the HID's are working correctly as the DS HID bulb was still flickering but after disconnecting and reconnecting the ballasts and wires, there was no flickering; Then I broke a bulb on accident. Just placed an order for another set of HID bulbs but it seems as if the issue has been resolved.

Thanks WhiteBird00! :cheers:

Parts came in and DS LED fogs and DS LED DRL's are working correctly but I'm still having an issue with my DS HID bulb.

I began troubleshooting by switching parts from DS to PS starting with the bulb, D2S-to-AMP adapter, and ballast. The problem is not with the bulb, adapter or ballast. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech...11810bbeed.png


Harness kit from TRS is installed correctly and connections are secure. The only oddity that I observed is the differing voltage from the PS and DS ballast outputs. I'm getting an 11.91 V reading from the PS but only a 10.01 V reading from the DS ballast output. Not sure what else I could test?

That would indicate that either the harness or the relay(s) are bad. Basically all you have is some wire (presumably all the same gauge) and a couple of relays. The relays are just electronically controlled switches so if the internal contacts are working then the output should be essentially the same as the input. BTW, we're talking about relay output to the ballasts - the ballast output itself would be about 25K volts at startup and 48 volts after that.

Try swapping the two relays in the harness and see if the voltage difference changes sides. That would indicate that a relay is defective.

That's the thing, I switched relays from side to side and it's still the DS bulb that's affected. This would indicate that the relays itself are OK but the DS ballast output wire itself is compromised? It seems like there is no other further test to conduct and the last resort is to purchase a new harness. It's pretty weird since I remember both HID bulbs working correctly as I alluded to in post #12.

Anything you recommend before I take replace the harness kit?

Are the wires in the harness colored so that you tell which one is each side output at the relays? If you have a multimeter, you could measure the resistance of the wires between the relay end and the ballast end. Finding one with significantly greater resistance (presumably the driver's side) would confirm that the harness is the problem so you could be reasonably sure that replacing the harness would solve the problem.