Please help - OPT7 Aftermarket low beams, one out, tested everything I can find
 

I just bought my first accord, and the thing is beautiful. 2011 Accord EX-L V6 3.5L manual, only 20 of them in my state. I went to a friends last night, took a picture of it at the gas station on the way, and both headlights were working. Got there, and the passenger side is out - turns out, my friend had just bought the H11 LED lights for his girlfriend and had an extra set to give me.

I went to check them out today, and have spent over 8 hours trying to figure this out. The previous owner had OPT7 Fluxbeam X headlights installed, which may not even be legal for the road, but gave an amazing clarity. I consulted all of the forums to learn about these lights. They basically plug into the original light socket, run through a ballast, and then have two cables connecting to the aftermarket LED light. They also have some pretty strong cooling fans on them.

From the forums, I gathered that to test the ballasts and everything, you should swap them from side to side. I did this, and it's still only the driver side light working.

I can hear the fan start up on the passenger side as soon as I plug everything in, so I know the light should be getting power.

I then tried the alternative H11 lights given to me by my friend, they're a very tight fit in the socket, but got absolutely no light when plugged in.

I didn't think it was a fuse issue, but then saw a video explaining that Accords have interior fuse boxes on both sides, so I swapped out one of the fog light fuses to the low beam location, plugged back in my ballast and OPT7 equipment, plugged in my original light (that was working yesterday) and got a little bit of light out of it. I was thrilled to see it getting some power (keep in mind the fans going on the same plugs had worked all along), and plugged the original OPT7 bulb back into the housing, went out and bought all new fuses, and put everything back together.

I then got little to no light out of the OPT7 light again. Tried to swap to the other H11 LEDs, absolutely nothing.

Heard on this forum that high powered lights often fry the original wiring harnesses, so I went out and bought a new one. To be safe and avoid splicing already very short wires, I checked the original bulb socket with a voltmeter and was pulling about 12-14 volts on each side with the lights turned on, so I've ruled out the harness being bad, although I intend to upgrade to high temperature sockets in the future if I stick with LED lights.

After a full day of working on these, on the car I just bought, I am completely out of ideas. I know my next steps are to check the interior fuse plugs for power and to look into relays, but I don't know too much about that. At this point, I'd be fine putting in normal halogen bulbs if that gets me on the road without being worried about being pulled over, but I'd still like to get this straightened out.

If you have any experience with these OPT7 lights, or can help explain why the fans are getting power, but not the lights themselves, nor the alternative H11 LEDs, please try to guide me through this!


I love this Accord and hope this isn't a bad omen.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hon...6f55b370fd.jpg

Did you measure across the sockets or from the hot-wire to a good ground. If the latter, maybe a bad ground in the socket?

Anyway, the "new member" area is mostly for welcome & introductions, so I'll move this to General Tech. where it'll get more people looking at it.

Couple things to test more comprehensively...

- I don't know what the Fluxbeam ballasts do or whether they interfere with the circuit. Or if they are completely removed from the circuit.

- The bulbs you are trying now... Do they work if plugged into some other car? Just so I don't take anything for granted whether the "new" bulbs are burned out.

- Get a normal bulb at some parts store or walmart or someplace like that & try it. A voltmeter doesn't draw any power to speak of, so there might be something about the circuit left over from the Fluxbeam installation.

(Maybe different on other forums, but we aren't really hung up on prohibiting newbies from posting in the technical areas)

Just here to update. Turns out the H11 LED bulbs my friend gave me somehow have a different prong size and weren't fitting in right. I put in regular halogens and they work fine. Getting a warranty replacement on the OPT7 lights from the manufacturer.

Not sure how lights clearly labeled H11 don't fit, but the problem was just a bulb apparently.