mmade22

Hello all. Some of you know me on here and have red my past threads. I'm no stranger to working on my own car but this one has me scratching my head. I need to see if anyone has ever heard of this and maybe you can lead me in the right direction.

2007 GS350

-The story....

Passenger light has been going out from time to time for the past 8-10 months. I changed the bulbs and the problem was fixed. A couple months go by and the right bulb would ignite and then after five seconds, it would turn off. If you try to turn it on again, it goes on for a second and fails again. It's been doing that like clockwork. I ordered another set of new bulbs and got the same result.

I decided to get a used oem ballast off of E-Bay (can't get new from the dealer). It was guaranteed to work. I took the light assembly out of the car and installed the new ballast. Installed it back on the car and it did the same thing. It came on and shut down. I figured, it could be a bad ballast. I installed a new bulb just to make sure and the same results.

I took the light off the car and took it to my friends shop. I installed an aftermarket ballast (high end) and we bench tested it at his shop and it worked with no issues. I got it home and hooked it up and I got a buzz noise from the ballast and nothing. After a few tries, it fired but the bulb was low in light.

Ok, I have a wire or amperage issue in the car going to the passenger light.

I checked the voltage and it is a constant 12.5 volts.

Checked the following:

-fuses
-harness connections and clips
-grounds

All looked great and nothing looked out of place. The connections on all the harnesses are clean like they came from the factory. The car has never seen salt, high water and its never been in an accident. I put a larger amp fuse 15 to a 20 amp with no change.

It's not a ground issue because there is one main ground that sends ground to all the lights in the light assembly. I would have other issues in those lights if it where ground. I know HIDS require a lot of clean power.

I know I can fix the issue if I add a relay harness inline from the aftermarket ballast to the battery with the turn on from the positive in the light assembly. That's the easy way out.

I would like to find and fix the problem and put my oem ballast in and put it all back to stock in a perfect world. I hope someone out there has delt with this and can lead me in the right direction.

I spoke with the dealer and they said the problem might be a bad ECU but I don't want to spend the money on something like if its not it.

Cliff Notes:

-Changed bulbs
-Changed OEM ballast with a used OEM ballast
-Changed OEM ballast with hight quality aftermarket ballast

Problem is still there. Possible harness/Amperage issue?

NEED HELP!

hiendo85

hi! i have the same 2007 gs350. factory bulbs on driver side turn off anytime it want to, i have to turn off the light and turn it back on all the time. i put in new set of bulbs recently and it works fine for 1 month, now im dealing with the same problem again, but this time, both side act up. driver side would go out and then passenger would go out. i have to turn off and back on for it to come on again, i have to keep doing it. i would love to know if you did get yours fix and keep me posted. or maybe anyone with similar problem and been through it could help us out. thanks

XxGoKoUxX

How is the ECU involved with the headlight assembly? I see the MOST involvement in that criteria is with your adjustable headlight system (AFS).

Have you tried tracing the line back and seeing where it comes from? I'm sure it connects to the fusebox.... Maybe the line is corroded on the other end and you need make a cleaner connection. I'm unsure if your voltage should sit at 12.5 (I've never took a multimeter to the HID ports). If I am correct, your connections should be higher than 12.5 volts because when the car is on (if your car is on) voltage should be ~13-13.8v.

If car is off, personal experience tells me resting voltage should be ~12.3-12.8.

Check your aftermarket ballast, see what's the LOWEST voltage it can go, MOST ballasts also say 9v-32v..... So in 12v range you should be alright. Loss of amperage would mean you would pop a fuse.

You could also have the headlight off, hook up your ballast, and see how many volts is running AFTER it is hooked up, if the voltage drops, that means you may have a bad ground inbetween somewhere. GL OP!

chuckGS350

http://www.lambros.net/LexusTechInfo...SB-0047-08.pdf

XxGoKoUxX

Nice post chuck! LOL.... They called the ballast the HID ECU..... You learn something new everyday

mmade22

Thanks Chuck. That explains why the dealer said ECU and not ballast. Why can't they call it like everyone else does? Too much!

I wouldn't blow a fuse for low amperage. To much amperage than say a 15 amp can withstand will blow but it wouldn't blow due to low amperage.

I did check the voltage when the car was off so that explains the 12 volts and not 14 due to the alternator supplying the charge. I will check the source voltage and also check the ballast voltage to compare as stated to do in the service bulletin. I guess I might have to do a little wire tracing this weekend and figure it out. I can always run new wires along with the main harness and connect them in at the fuse panel. The only good thing here is the two 15 amp fuses are in the engine compartment.

I am still hoping someone out there has had this exact problem and knows the fix. Hope is good thing.

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

were the bulbs replaced with cheaper bulbs? i see people have this problem and usually when it happens again, its because a cheaper quality bulb was used.

mmade22

It is an aftermarket 6000k bulbs but that's not the issue as it works when it was bench tested at my friends shop. I wish it was. I am going to look into this more this weekend and I hope I find the fix.

Anyone else?

XxGoKoUxX

mmade, you're probably one of the few people on here that's actually doing it right LOL! Even I'd get lazy at this point and bandaid it for temporary..... Either way, continue on doing what you're doing. GREAT work!

I forgot to ask, were your OEM ballasts bench tested? or were the bulbs tested on aftermarket high quality ballast?

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

you'd surprised though, even if it works, i heard of cheaper quality bulbs doing this to our cars. take one of your oem bulbs (the good ones) and swap it in and see if the problem happens.

mmade22

I haven't bench tested the OEM ballast but I will this weekend. I have two of them to try. I don't have the OEM bulbs anymore as I had thrown them out when both headlights acted up in their usual way of going on and off at times. I know OEM bulbs are a better built bulb but since I have a friend in the aftermarket business, I stocked up on two sets of bulbs. Three different bulbs wouldn't do the exact same thing. I just can't see that being it.

On another note, I drove home last night, turned the lights on and the usual happened. I'm driving home and all of a sudden, I could see again. The bulb was on and it was full like the drivers side. It never skipped a beat the entire two hour drive. I am leaning more towards a ground issue at this time.

I will look into this tomorrow and let you guys know what I come up with. I have to perform the big 200,000 mile service on her as she turns that milestone today! I have a thread on that and I plan on updating it next week when I have time. I just hope my Sewell parts show up today!

XxGoKoUxX

Wow! 200k miles..... Does she purr like day #1?

I wouldn't doubt that it's a grounding issue, you live in NC don't you? snow+salt=no no for ground connections.

xmike714x

iTrader: (1)

Im having the same issue! help!

ValnVer

I'm having similar problems with my HID Fogs... When I start my car most days one of them always seem to be out... If I turn the lights off and back on from inside the car they begin to work perfectly without issue (whichever one was out). After the car sits for 8-9 hours while I'm at work I come back and start the car only to see the same issue. I've just installed the lights about 6 weeks ago, I only noticed the problem in the past 2-3 weeks. I got the HID kit from DDM Tuning. Any suggestions on what the problem may be and how to fix? Thanks in advance guys!

mmade22

Long story but in the end, the **** china made bulbs were the issues. As people have said on here, don't use aftermarket bulbs. Point well taken! I bought new OEM bulbs and this saga is over! Stay OEM peeps!