Aftermarket head lights - driver side light stuck to ON

Hello Everyone!

I have a 2018 4Runner and a couple years ago I did the Morimoto light upgrade and while we were out of town this last weekend, my neighbor texted me that ONE of my head lights was stuck to the ON position. I had not driven the car for 24 hours and no one had touched it. Our neighbor grabbed the keys to try and turn it off but it was stuck on. I got back late Sunday night and I have not had a chance to look at it. I hooked up a battery tender to the battery with the hopes the issue solved itself but this morning my battery was still too dead to crank.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? I have spent 0 minutes diagnosing but hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. I find it very odd that only one light turned on without a key in the ignition. Here is my order details:

ORDER DETAILS:
Item Sku Qty Subtotal
Toyota (Oval): Morimoto XB LED LF-TOYOTA 1 $170.00
LED Fog Lights
1 x Fog Light: XB LED (Type T; Set) $170.00 LF220
9005: Morimoto Elite HS-9005 1 $165.00
HID Ballasts
2 x 35w / AMP: Morimoto XB Ballast $100.00 BL11
9005 HID Bulbs
2 x 9005 / H10 / 9145: XB 6500K $25.00 B431
Wire Harness
1 x HD Relay: 9005/9006/9012/H10 $25.00 H10
Optional Capacitor Link
1 x Morimoto Anti-Flicker Capacitor Link $15.00 H300
H11: Morimoto Elite HS-H11 1 $165.00
HID Ballasts
2 x 35w / AMP: Morimoto XB Ballast $100.00 BL11
H11 HID Bulbs
2 x H11A: XB 5500K $25.00 B391
Wire Harness
1 x HD Relay: H11/H9/H8/880 $25.00 H40
Optional Capacitor Link
1 x Morimoto Anti-Flicker Capacitor Link $15.00 H300

 

Check all your harness connections first. Any loose connections? Unplug and check pins. Any broken wires or rodent damage? Something is supplying power to that light, a shorted wire or failed component like a relay. Good luck troubleshooting, let us know the results.

 

I hate to say this, but Morimoto is not known for high quality lighting. All they do is market re-branded (with their name on it) cheap Chinese lighting products. And with HID's you not only get cheap Chinese components, you get a lot of them. I'm willing to bet that the problem is a bad ballast, but I stopped trying to trouble shoot those aftermarket HID systems a few years ago when one after another turned into an absolute nightmare / crap show.

If you want my serious advice, ditch the whole HID system and go back to OEM lighting. Not only will it work better, but if it fails, it will be easier to trouble shoot and get parts for. Oh, and it won't burn your vehicle to the ground either.

 

Yea, I agree with you. I jumped the truck yesterday evening and the light issue is gone, but one of the ballasts was making a lot of noise for about a minute and then it stopped. I didn't test the lights but my guess one is fried, so I will probably be replacing them soon.

I definitely regret not spending the extra cash and buying a self contained LED system.

 

Be very careful with aftermarket lighting - including "drop in" LED bulbs. (I assume that's what you're talking about when you say "self contained LED system.") Although the marketing makes them sound pretty awesome, science says the opposite. And most of the marketing claims - particularly when it comes to output - are wildly exaggerated. The worst ones are the cheap (under $50) eBay and Amazon specials. It should also be noted that most of the better LED manufacturers pulled their products off the market under pressure from government regulators. Unfortunately, the cheap stuff that was really causing problems is still widely available.

For your reading pleasure:

Why Most LED Headlight Upgrades Don't Really Work: An Expert Explains (jalopnik.com)

 

Interesting. Thanks!

In your opinion, is there any good replacements? I feel like the headlights that came with the 4Runner are terrible.

 

https://www.4runners.com/threads/h9-in-h11-headlight-sockets.8593/

 

As you might have guessed, I'm not a fan of most aftermarket LED & HID headlight bulbs or even entire headlight assemblies. The bulbs I've already noted my concerns on.

As for the aftermarket headlight assemblies / housings, I haven't seen one yet that matches the engineering, design, quality and longevity of OEM. Yes, the OEM T4R halogen headlights leave much to be desired. I look at them as a relatively rare OEM design failure. Some of the aftermarket units look pretty impressive because they flood the foreground with lots of light - at the expense of distance lighting. (That's bad when you're running 60 MPH down a dark back road.) Some have fancy DRL features that look cool. (That won't help you at all on that same dark road.) Virtually all of them are made in China to very poor quality standards. (So even if they look cool, they won't last long.)

What would I recommend? The newer OEM Toyota LED housings actually perform quite well as shown in these test results. (Disregard the link title.)
3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights | Page 253 | Tacoma World

The other thing that you can do relatively easily is add some aftermarket (yes, I actually endorse some of these) fog lights. My current favorites are the Diode Dynamics SS3 fogs in either Sport, Pro or Max models. You'd be surprised how much they will help you short range vision. Want more distance? The driving beam model works great as an auxiliary high beam.

Hope that helps!

 

In light of the current chip shortage, I'd use caution performing electrical mods.

It would really suck to smoke the CPU/ECU? And not be able to get a replacement.

 

That's good logic, although I did this mod 2+ years ago, I'm just now realizing the poor choice and need a solution. OEM seems the most obvious right now. I would like to upgrade, again, later. Thanks for the help!

 

Here’s some more discussions and instructions on modifying higher power halogen bulbs to fit into your high and low beams.
See post #122: Also, use side cutters like this:
Hakko-CHP-170 Micro Cutter - Red

$6 Hakko-CHP-170 Micro Cutter - Red

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FZPDG1K?_encoding=UTF8