2005 / LCI Headlight Rebuild Woes

Folks, I've studied a lot of videos and write-ups and yet...I am running into some stunning issues.

First, my wires were so fragile that the insulation became quickly destroyed with minor movement.

Long story short, I ended up re-insulating all of those wires with heat shrink tubing. Some of them were cut/spliced with new wire, but only a handful until I realized that was so much more work....

I hooked up my headlights tonight for a test run and they came on but...the high beam flickered on, off, on, off, then stayed off. I wiggled the wires some near the ballast and 'boom'. I swear I heard a short going on... :( Lights went out.

Bottom line, I think the lights and/or wiring and/or ballasts are jacked. Any thoughts here? I am at wits end - Once I rebuilt the entire driver side harness, hooked it up, and had issues, I lost my mind.

I have new lenses, new halos, and new bulbs. When the light comes on (it takes some time), it's super bright and clear. I love the lights but can't figure out why the high beam shutter won't stay open when called (during high beam, it flickers on/off/on/off quickly then wont' stay on). Would love some help here!

Have you tried powering up the shutter manually? like just put a 12v externa supply to it to see if it will stay open continuously. If it does, then we'll know it's something with the wiring that is bad. If not, could be the motor for the shutters are bad.

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Originally Posted by sillieidiot

Have you tried powering up the shutter manually? like just put a 12v externa supply to it to see if it will stay open continuously. If it does, then we'll know it's something with the wiring that is bad. If not, could be the motor for the shutters are bad.

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I actually did do that as it wasn't moving at all the first time I tried it. So there has been some progress.... I did notice that while I reinsulated everything, there were very small sections near the plug/pins themselves that were still bare. I have since applied liquid electrical tape to those areas to insulate and letting that dry before re-trying (or re-coating to be sure fully covered). I will give it a go after that.

I also just checked the connections at both of the tail lights as I've read/seen in other places that the ground wires at the tail lights can begin to fail. Somewhat fortunately, both of these look fine - no signs of any issues at the ground connection in the plugs for the tail lights.

Going to check voltage on wires while plugged in next.

The tail light ground affects the low beam flickering mostly.

I feel like it could be the shutter motors. Maybe try pulling it out and looking at the circuit board that the plug connects to it and see if anything is wrong with it.
I think the 12v+ comes from the single pin from the small plug on top. Then the ground goes back into the bundle with the ballast.

There's also a ground that is usually plugged into the back of one of the bolts of the projectors. Don't forget to plug that in.

is this happening with both headlights or just one? I couldn't tell from what you wrote since I only saw you refer to the driver's side once.