duffer649

I just got my new 2007 Lexus ES350 today and I noticed something odd.

I noticed when driving at night, when I shut the car off after putting it in park, the driver's side HID headlight is sometimes off and the passenger side HID headlight is on. Is this normal? If not, then what would be the problem?

Both HID headlights are on when the car is on.

Also, when I manually turn the HID lights off and back on, they are both on. I did notice that when I turned off the car once they both stayed on and then the driver's side bulb flickered a bit and then shut off. The passenger light remained on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

RickC5

I don't have HIDs, but IIRC, HID bulbs fail intermittently before finally failing altogether. Likely you need a new bulb on the driver's side. Do a search on this forum for more details--there are some threads about that.

chefchoy

Switch the bulbs and see if you still have the same problem.

jcat_350

this. If the driver's side still does it, it's the ballast. If the passenger side now does it after the swap, it's the bulb.

duffer649

Thank you for your help.

duffer649

I got the driver side HID replaced under warranty (from the place I bought the car) and within about 20 minutes the passenger HID light went out.

Is it normal for both HID lights to burn out almost at the same time?

Thanks.

jcat_350

Definitely not normal. Swap the bulbs and see if it's actually the bulb. If the Driver's side still lights up after you've swapped them, you have a more serious issue either in the fuses, or in the wiring/ballasts.

duffer649

The driver's side has the new bulb in it and it is working good. The passenger's side bulb comes on when the car is turned on but after about 10 minutes it flickers and goes out. I can turn the lights off manually and back on again and they are both on again.

jcat_350

id be surprised to see a perfectly good bulb go bad like that, unless something happened while they were changing the bulb.

If you swap the bulbs and it still happens, it's ballasts and/or wiring/fuses.

duffer649

The driver's side bulb is brand new as of today and it is working perfectly right now. I had it replaced today because it flickered and went out after being on for 10 minutes or so. It did it a few times per day until it got replaced.

The passenger's side bulb is the original 6 year old bulb. It is now doing the same thing as what the driver's side bulb did before I replaced it. I have not replaced the passenger side bulb yet.

jcat_350

you are failing to understand my comment as a means of troubleshooting to eliminate whether the bulb is at fault or something else within the system.

duffer649

I will try that, thanks.

duffer649

Both bulbs ended up being burnt at almost the same time. It's rare but it happened to me.

I now have 2 brand new lights working perfectly.

Thanks.

jcat_350

wow...normally I'd suggest going to play the lottery but I think you need the other kind of luck for that.

Glad you got it patched up

chefchoy

You mind if I ask, how many miles are on the car, and what did you have to pay per bulb?