MeganPat

Hey guys,
I had my beautiful 2003 IS300 shipped from California in March but I don't think she knows how to deal in cold weather. Last week air was leaking from the drivers rear and come to find out the tire was about to pop (changed it) and then 2 nights ago my passenger headlamp was flickering and finally went out, thought it was the bulb but my mechanic says it is the ballast. I am looking on eBay/Amazon for a new Ballast, is Denso legit? Is there a specific model # I need? I simply search eBay/Amazon with just my model info/year and what comes up is HID REPLACEMENT SLIM BALLAST FOR H1 H3 H4 H7 H10 H11 9005 9006 D2R D2S ALL SIZES

I'm afraid to drive her on icy roads, so any tips on how you take care of your car in the snow would be much appreciated as well! THANK YOU!
Megan

Messy

I have a similar problem. I have one light that works for a while and then it goes out. The next time I turn them on they do the same thing. I'm told that's what they do when the bulb goes bad. I ordered 2 new ones from DDM tuning (you can find some info on them in this forum). They take forever to ship, I ordered mine over a month ago and still nothing yet. It has to be shipped from China. I ordered the DR2. Those are supposed to be the rights ones. The DRS are for projector headlamps, our cars do not have them. I do believe that they will plug just the same though. As far a brands you cannot go wrong with Denso, they are the manufacture that makes everything for our car. It comes with Denso parts from the factory.
You will pay a pretty penny for anything Denso but if you don't mind then that's the way to go.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

make sure you are getting an OEM style ballast - the ballasts are actually internal to the headlamp and the front bumper cover and headlamp will need to be removed from the car to change the ballast on either side... on the driver side, at least part of the bumper cover has to be detached to even change a bulb as there is no room behind the lamp for this to happen...

you do not want a generic slim design ballast, most can be made to work, but it involves mounting the ballast outside of the headlamp instead of in the OEM position...

There are MANY places to order D2R bulbs all over the internet, ebay included that you can have in less than a couple days time...

for the OP, all I can tell you is traction control, good tires and be very careful... I drove my car last winter (mild) with no problems really, but I also had about the best all-season performance tires made and I grew up driving in the winter...