FYI for anyone using TRS/The Retrofit Source HID retrofits, problem and solution

[philrab]

Just leaving this here in case anyone uses TRS/The Retrofit Source for HID components. I ran into an issue a couple weeks ago, and figured it out. Just want to share hoping it'll help someone else troubleshoot their issue.

A couple weeks ago, I started to have a very specific failure with my TRS H7 low beam retrofit. The headlights would start first thing in the morning just fine, would work flawlessly for an hour drive to work, then when I get to the guard shack I cut my headlights off to keep from blinding the poor guys just like I always do. When I'd try to turn them back on, the driver side WOULD NOT come back on no matter what. After a little playing with it over a few days, it seamed to be an issue with the relay on that side. The ballast was not humming or making any noise, and it was pretty apparently not getting power. The passenger side still worked just fine. It seamed that once the relays got a little heat in them, the driver side would pack it up.

I ordered a new relay harness (TRS is pretty good about their warranty service, but fairly slow as well, and I had a family vacation coming up and needed this fixed before I drove three states away.) This is what I found when I got the old harness out.

Condesation and rust apparent in one of the relays. Other relay, the one that worked, looked fine.

A lot of rust actually.

Can't really see it in the pic, but It looked as though the copper windings on the coil inside the relay were coming apart.

I have little doubt that eventually, the relay would have shorted or packed it up completely. The new relay harness (this one is about a year and a half old) uses sealed relays, better water proofing on the cable connections, and a LOT of heat shrink and shrouding, an altogether better built piece of kit. Hopefully, if someone else runs into this issue, they'll find this post and it'll help point them in the right direction.