car newbie need help
 

hey guys i told a friend of mine about problems i've been having with my car's right headlight and he sent me to this website.

basically when i turn my lights on, it turns on fine, but after about a minute, the right headlight goes off. if i turn my lights off and on again, it'l come on. but after a minute, it goes out again. i dont know what the problem is and i thought about switching the right bulb with the left bulb to see if its my bulb thats messed up or something else, but i cant seem to figure out how to remove the bulbs to my car. my friend checked the fuse and im pretty sure thats fine (im not really sure).

i have a '01 is300 and frankly speaking, im a complete newbie when it comes to cars. this past week was the first time i opened up my cars hood, ever. i have no knowledge at all when it comes to cars, but i realize now that its a great skill to have, so i've decided to begin my automotive education at this wonderful site. i've read up a few articles and feel myself being a little bit more car-suavy already.

looking forward to any insight you guys may have to offer. oh yeah, i attend ucsd and go back and forth between LA, SD, and OC area if anyone here from the west coast can help.

cheers!

-bruce

It's gonna be either the bulb or ballast. To access the HID bulbs, there is a plastic dust cap you twist to unlock and pull off. Then there's a metal socket that you turn to unlock and pull off the bulb base. Then there's two metal clips that hold the bulb in place. It's a pain in the butt for me since there's so little room to work and I have big hands, so I just remove the front bumper and either loosen and push the entire headlight forward or just take them off the car completely to access the bulbs or w/e else I need to access.

I am one for tearing into a project and Don I agree with what you said but I would recommend that he take this somewhere as this would be his first time attempting to fix anything on the car or any car for that matter.

first off welcome to the IS300 family... Club Lexus is a great forum and you'll find lots of answers to questions you have no doubt about it. With that being said, there is another site that works well with this one, my.is (formerly IS300.net). Both sites work great but my.is has much more info conserning your generation IS300. Feel free to roam around and good luck with your new found hobby ;)

http://my.is/forums/f90/tutorial-thread-diy-ers-226270/

BTW... you have the right idea about switching the bulbs out to see if the trouble follows. If in fact it does, i suggest you switching both bulbs out at the same time. If the problem remains on the same side after moving the bulbs around, then you have yourself a bad ballast.

Im having an issue with my headlights as well. Ive replaced both bulbs, fuses are ok, relay seems to be operating as it should but still no headlights. the passenger side stopped working then a week later the other one went out. im not sure where to go from here and i dont think both ballasts would go out at the same time. At least i hope not lol thanks for any advice!