Hey CL. Having an issue with a car I just bought - The passenger side headlight seems to go out by itself. I can turn it back on with the light switch but a few minutes of driving it will go off. What can I do to fix or diagnose this (lamp vs ballast)?

 

This has been discussed many times, you should def do a search or check out our FAQ section here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...tart-here.html

First step would be to swap your driver side and passenger side bulbs and see if the change follows the bulbs. If it does than it should be the bulbs needing be replaced.

 

yup more than likely just a bulb and the above method will confirm that if the issue follow to the other side.

fyi dont use cheap $30 bulbs either if it is a bad bulb as they tend to wear out much quicker and you'll have the same issue a couple months later

 

FTFY

If you ever want to know without creating a new post, search your question in google followed by clublexus.com to get results from this site. For more specific results, add the gen specific forum instead of the whole forum: clublexus.com/forums/gs-3rd-gen-2006-2011-153/

 

The search should actually look like this:

search text what you're looking for site:clublexus.com

You can use that search function with any site:

 

That is correct. It is the same though. Your version is just the 'formal' version. Like typing in the URL bar https://www. before a website address. If you just type the address and .com/.se/.net/.gov/.edu it will still work the same.

 

It's not the "formal" version and it's not exactly the same either. Your search will return results where the search text and clublexus.com are mentioned because it will treat clublexus.com as part of the search text. The actual site: search will only return results from clublexus.com. Ultimately, you will get very similar results using both, but they are definitely not the same.

 

I digress. I am probably just being lazy. I know there are a lot of the 'site:' "tricks" you can use for a ton of different things to get specific, more helpful results. I've just never used any except the site one and when I do it the way I mentioned, it always just returned the results from that site first with the 'more from "so and so site"' button below the top few results fitting it.

I do understand how much more complex this now though. More than I originally at least.

 

it is the bulb failing. I have been through this a time or two

 

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll go ahead and test by swapping the bulbs first. Is there a way to determine a failing ballast or headlight unit without the bulb swap? I found some great tutorials on this site before that shows how to swap bulbs but does look pretty time consuming for an amateur like me.

Any recommendations on brands or which bulb I should purchase to replace? I know it's a DS4 type bulb.

Also - thanks for reminding me that I can use google. It's good to be in a community that upholds content rules but maybe just one time, before you post that canned response to get your post count up, couldn't it be possible that I just didn't know > what < to search for? I mean I am on CL because I do not know anything and want to learn. That's unimportant anyways but again THANKS to everyone. I'll be sure to post back about my findings.

 

bad bulb - swap sides, problem follows
bad ballast - swap sides, problem stays

thats the quick and dirty answer to your question. swapping bulbs takes all of 5 mins
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...fter-pics.html

i like the garax brand. cheaper than oem but still a good quality product

 

^ Thanks, looks easy enough I'll have to try it asap. I'll look for Garax, how does Phillips hold up?

 

philips are very good, they are oem brand bulbs. if you decide to go that route just make sure you buy them from a reliable source as there are fakes floating around on ebay

 

I would never go with any replacement bulb other than Osram or Phillips from retrofit source. Although I've never had any experience with garax, I know for a fact that I've never had an issue, ever, with either of the two brands.

 

search the forum, garax has been a well discussed and vouched for brand