My Unsatisfactory Experience With Morimoto XB Headlights.

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Well your issue might be aftermarket components. The guy before you may have ran aftermarket components and/or lights. Heck he might have been running 55w HIDs and that burned up your H13 connector. But when he sold the truck he probably put regular housings back in. But you don't know that.

That's why I asked if it's used. Any time we've had a customer experience weird issues we've always found out it's a used truck and someone before him had aftermarket parts. Usually it's a turn signal that's not blinking right and there are signs of a LOAD Resistor that used to be installed and/or are not installed right.

Take a photo of your plugs for me if you can. I can tell you if it's been replaced at some point or if it's the factory one. Also show me photos of your factory lights AND the factory bulbs. Also, please send me a photo of the REAR of your factory housings (this will tell me if they've ever been modified).

 

[PD1744]

Ah ok. Was wondering where you were going with all of that. Jesus man you’re gonna have be go back in these for the millionth time??? Just kidding. Good thing I can do it blindfolded at this point. I’ll get that together for you after lunch.


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[PD1744]

Snapped these for you.

OEM housing




Back of assembly



Sylvania H13




Nice pins and podding on the connector




Truck side connector. OEM harness as far as I can tell.




The discolored socket (Neutral leg)




This was the isolator that was melted on the Morimoto headlight.



If I’m being honest all the connectors on the Morimoto end look chintzy. So as a dealer you guys haven’t experienced an abnormal failure rate on their stuff? Let me know if you’d like to see anything else.


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[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

They are not chintzy. It's an H13 connector. Every single aftermarket product looks similar.

What does the other H13 connector look like on your other side of the truck.

BTW that's not an isolator... it's an H13 connector. Your factory connector has issues, which is probably why your Morimoto light never lit up. There is no sign of any damage on the Morimoto connector but your factory connector shows signs of something melting/arcing at some point. Most likely from the previous owner doing who knows what.

Basically, your factory H13 connector is bad. Yeah, the factory halogen bulb works, but you're not running a factory bulb anymore. you're running aftermarket. So you should fix the H13 connector on your truck.

One way to test this theory is just plug the problematic side into the OTHER side's connector.

 

[PD1744]

They are not chintzy. It's an H13 connector. Every single aftermarket product looks similar.

What does the other H13 connector look like on your other side of the truck.

BTW that's not an isolator... it's an H13 connector. Your factory connector has issues, which is probably why your Morimoto light never lit up. There is no sign of any damage on the Morimoto connector but your factory connector shows signs of something melting/arcing at some point. Most likely from the previous owner doing who knows what.

Basically, your factory H13 connector is bad. Yeah, the factory halogen bulb works, but you're not running a factory bulb anymore. you're running aftermarket. So you should fix the H13 connector on your truck.

One way to test this theory is just plug the problematic side into the OTHER side's connector.

Hmm... Worth a shot. Couldn't hurt anything. The new H13 socket will be here tomorrow. Hopefully you're right and it solves any future issues. The socket on the other side does not have this burn mark. And yes, this Morimoto connector is still in tact, since it's new. It was the last one that was melted. So leads to the question, what in fact was the actual 'causation' here. Was it caused by this aftermarket component? Since I've not found any evidence that previous owners ran anything aftermarket, though not out of the realm of possibility. Because the logic still doesn't quite make sense to me that because I'm running 'plug and play' aftermarket and not OE that is why it fails. Do you mean the aftermarket stuff is more sensitive?

And yes, I did do the swap test. Was inconclusive because the failure mode was intermittent, making it not easy to replicate.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Logic and our sales history would indicate that your issue was pre-existing and caused by something you don't know about. That's why I asked if your truck was used. Usually when customers have issues installing things, we find it's always on a used truck because the old owner did who knows what. We sell a LOT of Morimotos and for you to have issues TWICE now tells us something else is going on. We sell a LOTTTTTTTT of Morimoto and it's extremely rare these days to have issues. We HAVE seen connection issues on the H13 but that's going to happen regardless because of the low tolerance Ford has. It's an OEM plug afterall and the halogen bulbs have bigger pins. That's just how it works. Halogen pulls a lot of current therefore it needs the bigger pins. You ever wonder why your H13 wires are so thick? That's why. The Morimotos don't need that much amperage, but the halogen bulb does.

I'M GUESSING that the guy before you had aftermarket Halogen bulbs that pulled a LOT of power. There are bulbs on the market that are 2x as bright, and are halogen. I used to work for a company back in the day. We sold upgrade bulbs. But we saw an issue where they pulled so much current they were melting wires. Based on what you tell me, that's my guess. Old owner ran some higher power bulbs, melted things a bit and when you got the truck and went to install something aftermarket, it wasn't making a solid connection anymore. Essentially his old bulb "melted" itself to the harness.

He probably swapped them out when he had an issue OR before selling you the truck.

IF you can get a hold of the old owner, it's worth asking. I kept in touch with the guy who bought my old 2015 truck. He asks me questions from time to time.

 

[PD1744]

Logic and our sales history would indicate that your issue was pre-existing and caused by something you don't know about. That's why I asked if your truck was used. Usually when customers have issues installing things, we find it's always on a used truck because the old owner did who knows what. We sell a LOT of Morimotos and for you to have issues TWICE now tells us something else is going on. We sell a LOTTTTTTTT of Morimoto and it's extremely rare these days to have issues. We HAVE seen connection issues on the H13 but that's going to happen regardless because of the low tolerance Ford has. It's an OEM plug afterall and the halogen bulbs have bigger pins. That's just how it works. Halogen pulls a lot of current therefore it needs the bigger pins. You ever wonder why your H13 wires are so thick? That's why. The Morimotos don't need that much amperage, but the halogen bulb does.

I'M GUESSING that the guy before you had aftermarket Halogen bulbs that pulled a LOT of power. There are bulbs on the market that are 2x as bright, and are halogen. I used to work for a company back in the day. We sold upgrade bulbs. But we saw an issue where they pulled so much current they were melting wires. Based on what you tell me, that's my guess. Old owner ran some higher power bulbs, melted things a bit and when you got the truck and went to install something aftermarket, it wasn't making a solid connection anymore. Essentially his old bulb "melted" itself to the harness.

He probably swapped them out when he had an issue OR before selling you the truck.

IF you can get a hold of the old owner, it's worth asking. I kept in touch with the guy who bought my old 2015 truck. He asks me questions from time to time.

Gotcha. Yes, this could be the case for sure. No way of knowing, as I think I'm like the 5th owner of this vehicle and bought from a dealer not an individual. Hopefully the new pig tail is the ticket. Thanks for looking into it!

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Buying from a dealer doesn't mean anything. It's a used truck. Dealers buy them at auctions and re-sell them.

 

[PD1744]

Buying from a dealer doesn't mean anything. It's a used truck. Dealers buy them at auctions and re-sell them.

Right. Buying from a dealer means I didn't talk to the last dude that owned the truck.

 

[Cody Templeton]

I've been an auto tech for years and run my own shop and just wanted to chime in - you've got a burnt connector there, either from a poorly fitting pin in the connector causing an arc or high resistance on the wire due to a short. I'd imagine that's your problem, not the Morimoto headlights. I've had mine in for about 5 months now and they've been nothing but perfect.