Just got my girl an 07 IS350. 40k miles and MINT! She loves it!.

I noticed the other night when I pulled into the garage that the left headlight(xenon) was out.

Now I think the car was off. But I don't recall if the headlight was out while driving into the garage or after I shut the car off. But after I noticed I started the car and the headlight came back on.

I noticed the same thing when she was in the garage last night getting groceries out of trunk. Car was off but driver headlight was out while the passenger side was not. I got back in the car turned the ignition on and the headlights came on fine. Turn ignition off and both headlights were on. I waited for them to time out and everything worked fine. Headlights went out together as they should during Automatic operation.

I assume this is a ballast resistor thing but I am just wondering if after 7 years (but only 40k miles) is this typical and is there some place to start looking for an issue?

Car does not have any accidents, its a one owner local car, no paint work, nothing. No panel has ever been off the car. Doesn't hardly have a rock chip on it.

Any direction you can send me would be helpful.

Thank you!

 

swap bulbs from left to right and right to left... see if the same issue happen to the other side after the bulb is swapped... most likely is the bulb needs replacement cuz i have same problem this week and it was fine after bulb was replaced...

 

swap the bulbs passenger to driver and see if the problem follows the bulb. more times than not its the bulb on its way out. if it goes out while she's driving at night just have her turn the lights off and back on real quick... it will usually come one for a short time if it is the bulb on its way out.

 

Could be a bulb or ballast on their way out. Like want was mentioned, swap sides with HID bulbs themselves and see if the "problem" follows the bulb or stays with the specific headlight.

 

Thanks for the quick replies!

I will try the bulb swap. I didnt assume it would be the bulb if it worked. I think I just assumed if a xenon bulb worked it worked.. Only issues I have ever had with Xenon is if the ballast or ignitor went out.

I will report back.

Thanks again!

 

Funny enough.. I swapped the bulbs driver-->passenger and the passenger bulb died. So I though..hooray.. must be the bulb.

So I order some bulbs from Amazon that I had read several people on here didnt have issues with. Put them in and bam.. the bulb is still going out. More over.. it mainly sticks to the passenger side now but I have had the driver side go out once during some testing?

Are these bulbs just crap? The car only has 40k on the clock. Yes its 7 years old. That is another reason I can see the bulb dieing.

And it also seems random.. there were a couple times where the bulb didnt go out. So I shut them off and turned them back on and eventually the passenger side would flicker a bit and go out.

Argh! Dealer of course is telling me its the non name brand bulbs.. But with my employee discount they still want $140 a piece for the stinking things.

Could it have been crappy bulbs and I should just spring for the OEM or Xenon depot bulbs?

 

dunno bro I always prefer to spend more on bulbs just so I don't have to deal with stuff like this. There are cheaper bulbs in cost that are reliable... but I usually spend about $120+ for a set of bulbs. The most i've spent was on Nigel's Philips Ultinons... pretty expensive but man they were nice.

I recently bought some slightly used bulbs from a member here maybe 2 months ago. He had the invoice showing they were literally a month old. Cost was half what he paid but the site he bought them from was one that is known on here for having an unpredictable product. I originally figured ahhhh whats $50 for a set of bulbs... well last week one of them flickered and went out... moved it over... same thing... so I bought some new ones from a Vendor here over the weekend.

MaxTT 5k HID bulbs from HID PowerHouse for $120. I knew better than to buy those other bulbs for half the cost from a hit and miss company... womp womp womp I was just hoping luck was on my side and it wasn't

 

funny.. I hear ya.. And I honestly have no problem spending the money as long as I know they are going to work. I just hear all these people talking about these ballasts going bad.

Looking for piece of mind. But honestly at this point I should know better.

 

Thanks for your order with us.

For HID bulbs, high quality bulbs tend to last longer as they use higher quality halide salts inside the chamber inside the glass tube. Higher quality HID bulbs will also give you more color accuracy and optimal light output.

 

Im having the same issue with my headlights going out intermittently. Its usually the right side, but occassionally the left and sometimes both go out. low beam only. I can sometimes turn them off and back on and they might work for a few minutes. Sometimes both are working, I go into the convenience store and come out to just one working. UGH..

The gaskets are fine and there is no condensation inside the housing. I swapped sides with the same results.

Ive replace them both with higher quality sylvania bulbs and the issue persists. I home someone can help. Tired of getting pulled over!

 

Same thing here. Just noticed it the other day and it's getting annoying. Haven't replaced my bulbs yet as I've been trying to do the research. Ugh.

 

I had the same problem when we first got my 07 with 90k on it. Sometimes left side, sometimes right, sometimes both. A quick on/off flip of the switch usually would turn them back on for a little bit. Replaced them with OEM (Phillips IIRC) bulbs and haven't had a problem since. (30k miles ago)

IMO, miles doesn't mean anything when it comes to electronics. 40k miles doesn't indicate how many hours the bulbs have on them. They are till 8 years old and somebody could have loved to idle with their headlights on or something of the sort.

I once had a friend that would start around 5ish in the afternoon and sit in town talking to folks all night long with his tuck idling the whole time. Didn't make any sense to me but to each his own.