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Swapping Halogen Light assembly for LED assembly?

Broly said:
Essentially, these are Spyder headlights. Seems to be a halogen and LED headlight versions available.

I’m sure but not certain that Spyder, DT Moto, ACANII, etc are all manufactured by the same company
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The box that mine came in said Spyder even though on Amazon it said ACANII.
 
Broly said:
Is it safe to say that ALL 5thgen OEM Halogen owners will be required to fuse tap in order to run only DRLs with any upgraded aftermarket or OEM setup?
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I have the option to turn on DRL in settings but I believe that turns on the low beam so ended up tapping the fuse for the DRL for my after market setup.
 
I bought an "insurance quality" headlight off ebay which said perfect glass , and tested to ensure it works for 450 shipped. Open it up and there is some stone pitting and a 2 inch scratch on the lens. I reach out to him and he offers a $40 refund for the damage. I say screw it and accept the offer as it doesn't look too bad. I spend 2 hours today taking everything apart and installing it..... should have known... the light won't work. The other side I bought new from carid.com and it works perfectly. Tried plugging it into the other side and it still didn't work. Back to the halogens for now. Already shipped the bad one out and placed an order for a brand new one. Should not have tried to save the $150. Should have gone new from the start. How frustrating. Seller said he will give me a full refund so hopefully he honors it. Rant over
 
eproulx38 said:
I bought an "insurance quality" headlight off ebay which said perfect glass , and tested to ensure it works for 450 shipped. Open it up and there is some stone pitting and a 2 inch scratch on the lens. I reach out to him and he offers a $40 refund for the damage. I say screw it and accept the offer as it doesn't look too bad. I spend 2 hours today taking everything apart and installing it..... should have known... the light won't work. The other side I bought new from carid.com and it works perfectly. Tried plugging it into the other side and it still didn't work. Back to the halogens for now. Already shipped the bad one out and placed an order for a brand new one. Should not have tried to save the $150. Should have gone new from the start. How frustrating. Seller said he will give me a full refund so hopefully he honors it. Rant over
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eBay is not what it used to be. I would never buy anything electrical off that site...not worth the savings IMPO.
 
TheMadDutchDude said:
Grab the adapter directly from RetroShop. I’ve had mine for approx. a year at this point, and they’ve been great. One adapter did fail about three months in, but they shipped a new one the next day after some back and forth troubleshooting. It has been flawless since then. Highly recommended!
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Interesting that you had one of the adapters fail 3 months in. Any idea of the cause?
 
JDiMassa8 said:
Im actually keeping them for now. I actually have 3 bulbs which is the funny part. I’ll let you know if I end up selling. I’m keeping them just in case I have problems with these led assemblies (which I have ran into one now).
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Can I ask what your problem was with the OEM LED assembly? Im using the Reto Shop harness and just installed mine this weekend.
 
Hi All
Thought I'd post my tale of woe here since this seems to be the most comprehensive thread on the subject. 2020 Ram DT with factory Halogen (they really suck). I purchased allegedly plug and Play LED H11 (low beam) bulbs from Headlight Experts. They have a driver box in the wiring. Intermittently they shut down and come back on, one at a time initially, and eventually both go out and don't recover until power is cycled on the truck. No warning lights on the dash.
So I call them and they say I need PWM boxes. I have them coming.
After getting a taste of how good they are I'm determined to make them work. Even if I have to install load resistors. I'd like to get pigtails for the harness that plugs into the bottom of the headlight so I don't have to cut into the factory harness.

What say you guys, do you think I'll need to install the load resistors?
Thanks
 
Has anyone moved from the factory halogen lights to LEDs and have the RH headlight not work, or only work intermittently?

I got a set of AlphaRex Luxx lights for my '22 Bighorn. When installing, the left side was perfectly fine, but the right side headlights didn't work (marker, turn signal and DRLs were fine). AlphRex had me plug the right headlight into the left side harness. It worked fine. When I plugged the right side back into the right side harness, the low beam would only work if I wiggle the harness. High beam wouldn't work at all.

AlphaRex sent me a replacement that took a couple of weeks to get here. In the meantime, I installed the "bad" AlphaRex headlight and wire-tied the headlight harness to one of the a/c lines. It provided just enough upward pressure on the harness so that the low beam functioned properly. Still no high beam at all.

Yesterday I went to install the replacement AlphaRex light and it does the same thing. So, I installed the stock headlights and RH side still didn't work. Sounds like wiring problem, right? Nope. I swapped the bulbs, and voila! BOTH lights now work. Now I have the stock headlights installed and working fine, and 2 sets of AlphaRex lights to return.

Question is why? It has to be software related. I don't know if the act of unplugging both headlights and then plugging them back in while I was trouble shooting the stock headlight resulted in some kind of reset or what. I'd really like to move to LEDs but I don't want to tear the front of the truck apart again unless I can get to the bottom of this behavior.

Any ideas?
 
turbojimmy said:
Has anyone moved from the factory halogen lights to LEDs and have the RH headlight not work, or only work intermittently?

I got a set of AlphaRex Luxx lights for my '22 Bighorn. When installing, the left side was perfectly fine, but the right side headlights didn't work (marker, turn signal and DRLs were fine). AlphRex had me plug the right headlight into the left side harness. It worked fine. When I plugged the right side back into the right side harness, the low beam would only work if I wiggle the harness. High beam wouldn't work at all.

AlphaRex sent me a replacement that took a couple of weeks to get here. In the meantime, I installed the "bad" AlphaRex headlight and wire-tied the headlight harness to one of the a/c lines. It provided just enough upward pressure on the harness so that the low beam functioned properly. Still no high beam at all.

Yesterday I went to install the replacement AlphaRex light and it does the same thing. So, I installed the stock headlights and RH side still didn't work. Sounds like wiring problem, right? Nope. I swapped the bulbs, and voila! BOTH lights now work. Now I have the stock headlights installed and working fine, and 2 sets of AlphaRex lights to return.

Question is why? It has to be software related. I don't know if the act of unplugging both headlights and then plugging them back in while I was trouble shooting the stock headlight resulted in some kind of reset or what. I'd really like to move to LEDs but I don't want to tear the front of the truck apart again unless I can get to the bottom of this behavior.

Any ideas?
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When I was going through my issues one headlight at a time would shut down intermittently. The whole issue was strange, sometimes they would be fine for several minutes, other times they would shut down quickly. I bench tested the bulbs with a DC power supply for 30 minutes, they never shut down. I believe the Power Control Module was shutting the lights down. I should have connected my scanner to see if there were any flags set. No faults on the dash during any of this.
On another subject, Headlight experts sent me their version of the PWM module for H11. It did not have H11 connectors on both ends so it was a No-Go. I spoke with Diode Dynamics and bought their PWM module. It had the correct connectors on both ends. Installed them and so far so good, no headlight shut downs. Since this was so intermittent, I'll wait a while before I declare victory. BTW the LED driver and the DD PWM fit inside the headlight housing under the dust caps.
 
Randol said:
When I was going through my issues one headlight at a time would shut down intermittently. The whole issue was strange, sometimes they would be fine for several minutes, other times they would shut down quickly. I bench tested the bulbs with a DC power supply for 30 minutes, they never shut down. I believe the Power Control Module was shutting the lights down. I should have connected my scanner to see if there were any flags set. No faults on the dash during any of this.
On another subject, Headlight experts sent me their version of the PWM module for H11. It did not have H11 connectors on both ends so it was a No-Go. I spoke with Diode Dynamics and bought their PWM module. It had the correct connectors on both ends. Installed them and so far so good, no headlight shut downs. Since this was so intermittent, I'll wait a while before I declare victory. BTW the LED driver and the DD PWM fit inside the headlight housing under the dust caps.
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Thanks for the reply.

I sent the AlphaRex lights back and got a pair of used OEM LED headlights and the Retro kit. I installed them yesterday.

It. Does. The. Same. Friggin. Thing. It's maddening.

Before I sent the AlphaRex units back, they suggested cleaning the connectors with electric parts cleaner. I did. And I visually inspected them. They look fine, but still no high beam on the right side. They said NOT to use dielectric grease, but the Retro kit specifically said to use it (which I did). Since the Retro kit doesn't work either, it's definitely an issue with my truck, but what? BCM itself or an issue with the wire between the BCM and the headlight connector.

I have the pin-out for the connector. It looks like the #3 position is the high-beam "driver". What am I looking for there? Is it a switch to ground or voltage?

EDIT: It's pretty clearly the connector. I didn't want to believe it on a almost-new truck. But, if I wiggle it I can get the low beams to go out as well. I can't explain why the halogen light works without issue, or why the low beam on the LED doesn't work at all while the halogen one does, but wiggling the wires at the back of the connector causes the light to go on/off. I ordered a new connector and will splice it in next week (will probably carry on the family tradition of wrenching on the cars Christmas day). I don't want to take it to the dealer because they'll tell me it's my fault for swapping out the lights (and that may be true - who knows).
 
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ZombieSlayer said:
Did you re-seat the connector and pins?
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No - not sure what that means or how to do it.

I was looking for a way to disassemble it, but I don't see a way.

Also, word to the wise: CRC's "QD Electronic Cleaner", despite having a picture of a weatherproof electrical connector on the can, will eat the seal in the headlight connector. I have no seal left after using that crap. So I may just replace the connector anyway. BUT, if I can re-seat the connector and PINs first I can that.
 
Are you talking about the headlight connector, or the one inside the truck that connects to the bcm?

Re-seating is basically just disconnecting the harness (and taking a look at both ends) and reconnecting it. The pins are a little harder, but you can try just pushing them in (gently). You just need something that will rest on the pin and gently push on them. But it sounds like you need to replace the connector if the seal has been destroyed.
 
ZombieSlayer said:
Are you talking about the headlight connector, or the one inside the truck that connects to the bcm?

Re-seating is basically just disconnecting the harness (and taking a look at both ends) and reconnecting it. The pins are a little harder, but you can try just pushing them in (gently). You just need something that will rest on the pin and gently push on them. But it sounds like you need to replace the connector if the seal has been destroyed.
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The headlight connector - the seal is gone.
 
It was the headlight connector. I never would have guessed that it would be bad on a 15k mile truck, but it was. The pins were jacked up inside the connector. I tried to line them back up but it was too fubar'd. I spliced in a new connector and all is well now.
 

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Old post but what was wrong with the pins?
Dou you have a Part No of the connetor?
Why was it Impossible to repair the Pins?
 
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