HID Issues

[gb21914]

I recently bought a plug and play HID kit from a local shop here, and installed the kit only to discover the issue with the DRL's. I bypassed the DRL today using the yellow wire method and I am now getting the HID's ballasts to ignite when I turn the lights on manually.I thought perhaps there wasn't enough juice in the battery, but I boosted it with my SUV thinking that would make a difference and it doesn't.Any other thoughts as to what could cause this? I've only got one HID installed for testing at this point...Any other thoughts?2003 Base Vibe / Neptune

[Whelan]

I ditched the whole HID fad after the set I bought finally died on me after a year of service. I went to HIR bulbs for a much improved light output and am now on a set of Phillips Xtra's. They are amazing in comparison to what my 6K set was. Mostly because the stock lenses are not built for HID light output. Retro-fits are the only way to get the proper output.As for your case. I bypassed the DRL and the light sensor altogether under the dash with a simple cut of a wire from the DRL box and then a clip connector under the wheel. No more lights on when driving under tree shade.

[keithvibe]

what yellow wire?If you cut pin12 on the drl, it should have been a red wire with a white strip.Unless you went another route.

[Whelan]

"Not that yellow wire...the other yellow wire."

[gb21914]

From reading the forums there are 3 methods of bypassing the lights.Method 1. Snip the yellow wire from the light control module, tape one end and ground the other wire. The yellow wire is listed as DRL function...and this disables both the DRL and AUTOLIGHT featuresI've tested this and everything is working fine, for those of us with the early Vibes this seems to be the best route to go.Method 2. The red/white wire was almost the route that I went...except that the red wire is the detection for if the vehicle is running or not...and I suspect that cutting that wire might impact another project that I want to do. Incidently this appears to be the best method for Vibes after 2005 from what I can tell.Method 3. I really like the idea of breaking into the light assy module but don't trust my "fine soldering" skills, and I found the instructions with regards to the the pinout and where one wire actually goes to be a little vague.I've had Corolla's for years, and have always been frustrated at the passenger side headlights blowing all the time. Being in Canada they do take a beating between the heat and the cold, not to mention the occiaisional power surges that the Corolla / Vibe / Matix are prone to.My thought was to bypass the issue altogether with a set of HID's as there is no bulb to break...and the ballast takes a lot more to damage than a small spike in power. The frustration I am having is that on my last toyota (a heavily modified 1998 Corolla) the DRL's were on the highbeams at reduced wattage. So replacing my headlights with HID's was an easy quick fix. Not so with my 2003 Vibe, which appears to be a DRL Nazi (good for safety though!).Somewhere over the past few years that appears to have changed...so it's just not going as easy as I would have liked...and as I'm sure you are all aware...the biggest frustration is always expecting one thing...and experiencing the other Regardless...I'll get there...am going to go the route of a wiring harness later this afternoon and bypass what I can of the circuit altogether. After that I will start work on my headlight modification project, I just want to get the basic system working so that I can move to the next stage is all. The fogs are already running on a bypass so that I can run with them as sudo DRL's.

Attached files

[Whelan]

Keep in mind your Vibe does not utilize the same 9006 / 9005 setup as a Matrix does of the same model years. The Matrix runs with a dedicated low beam and a dedicated high beam. The Vibe in retrospect uses a dual hi/lo bulb (9003) I believe. That means you have to completely disable the DRL or buy a bi-xenon kit (very pricey) to make it work properly. In the Matrix the DRL is the low beam just on, no lower wattage. I would assume in the Vibe the DRL is as well the low beam at regular wattage. So your best bet is to go back and get under the dash behind the steering wheel and disable the DRL and the automatic light sensor for auto lamps via the how-to. Those two combined should solve your problem.

[gb21914]

Poor vehicle grounding....*sigh* I spent most of the weekend going over why I was having this issue...and it turns out that the grounding on the vehicle was not up to spec...so over the weekend I took the liberty to re-ground what I could.Ironically, the car seems to be running better than I ever recall it running....I dunno if the ear dyno is like the (removed) dyno or not...but it does seem smoother overall.Anyways...the issue is fixed, the yellow wire mod was a success...not to tackle the independant fogs.Thanks guys.