Hi Guys,

My car is an 08 with 120k on it. Had it since it was new. Just recently the passenger side HID would go out randomly. I can turn the headlights on and off and the light will come back on. Its not all the time and it just happens randomly but frequently enough that its a concern. Maybe every other day or so now.

My feeling is that its not the bulb since it does in fact turn on. The AFS is working properly as well.
There's no discoloration or dimness in the light. It just sometimes turns off on its own and then if I turn off the lights and turn them back on, they will light up fine again.

Any ideas for troubleshooting? No modifications to the headlight except changing the parking light to a hyperwhite non-LED bulb.

Thanks

 

Have you tried swapping out the bulb from one side to the other....that would ultimately rule out the bulb being bad?

 

I haven't taken anything apart yet. I don't think its the bulb. If the bulb was bad, wouldn't it just not come on at all?

 

When my bulbs went out, it would just cut on and then cut back off again after 5-10 seconds occasionally. Try swapping the bulbs as previously mentioned, the dealer told me that it was rarely the ballast causing the problem. I just replaced them myself with some phillip's OEM bulbs.

Unbolting the washer reservoir fill tube and removing it makes accessing that area much easier btw.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a whirl. I still need to install some new LED parking lights I got a while ago so at least this gives me a reason to go through all the trouble. Where did you source the OEM Philip's bulbs?

 

Mine did that last year; the bulb needed to be replaced. $215 by the dealer.

 

Thanks tex2670. Interesting, maybe I'll buy a bulb and try it out. I can do the install myself. Do you mind if I ask how much the bulb was itself without install?

 

Found it on Sewell for $175/each bulb!!! DANG!!! If I only change 1, there won't be a color difference with my other one that is working fine right?

 

It depends on the color temperature of the bulb you get. The stock one is 4300k so if you get one the same temp. there won't be a difference. Just buy 2 6000k bulbs it looks awesome. Garax bulbs are very good for the price.

 

That's why you don't buy it from Sewell!

You can buy them from Xenon Depot or Nigel-JDMParts who are two CL vendors here who sell them.

 

Have you tried swapping out the bulb from one side to the other

 

Swap the bulbs from 1 side to another.

IF that doesn't work we got plenty of vendors as Sango mentioned who sell these for cheaper!

 

that's the ballast trust me

 

This happened to me too - pretty infrequently at first but got to the point where it was once a week then everyday then it just stopped working. For me it was the bulb and I replaced it with 5000k Xenon Depot D4S bulbs and they're great! I'm happy with them and the color is exactly what I wanted (almost pure white). You should definitely try swapping them first though to make sure it's not the ballast.

 

Did you experience similar symptoms? (Lights turning off intermittently?)