I have a HID headlight on a 2007 Lexus IS250 that will not come on with low beams. My friend who is a mechanic says it looks like the ballast instead of the bulb, and says I should go ahead and just replace the whole front headlight. Since its a HID those are like 600.00 bucks.

1. Should I chance it and go ahead and get a HID bulb and replace?
2. Is there a place I can get a used headlight for half that price?

I am new owner of this vehicle and Lexus in general. Love the car and just learning on the stuff it has. Any tips are appreciated.

Thanks,

 

Swap the bulbs from one side to the other. If the problem moves with the bulbs, it is just a bad bulb. If the problem stays on the same side, your mechanic friend is right about the ballast.

If it is the bulb, then replace both of them, as they you want them to match in brightness and color. (and buy quality bulbs from an authorized dealer, many of the bulbs on Amazon and eBay are counterfeits)

If it is the ballast, then just replace the bad ballast.

 

Thanks for the reply. I will pull them tomorrow and check to see. He said when replacing the ballast you have to break the seal and many times it will not seal back correctly.

Thanks for the tip on the bulb.

 

Agreed, check bulbs first then ballast. No need to assume you gotta replace the whole unit when it could just be a dead bulb

 

If it turns out to be the ballast, do some research here. I think I recall that some people have discovered a trick to replace the ballast without taking apart the headlight by removing and replacing the bulb connector from the wire connecting it to the ballast.

 

U don't need to open the headlight to replace the ballast it's actually really simple. U can disassemble the bulb connector it's just hold by clips once u disassemble it there's will be 2 wires left find a shoe lace tie the shoe lace to the 2 wire make sure it's tight unscrew the ballast and pull the ballast out with the wire so the shoe lace will follow the route of the wires going throught the headlight once the wires is out untie the shoe lace and tie it to the new ballast and pull the other way back throught. Reassemble the connector u r good to go. I replaced my ballast twice it should take more than 5 minutes to replace the ballast

 

I really appreciate the help. So it was a weird issue. Mine has 2 halogen bulbs, then the HID on the outsides.

I pulled the halogen bulbs from the other side as instructed here, they worked on the other side so that was good. While messing around in there, my HID bulb on that original side the lights went out on, now when I turn the lights on, it buzz's for like 1-2 secs comes on, then turns off every time.

Also, it was just the low beam bulb that was originally out, now the high beam bulb went out.

Here is another one, the other HID on the good side works, when I raised the hood this last time it went out. I had to turn them off and back on and it came one.

This is the weirdest thing I have ever encountered with headlights on any vehicle I have owned. Its almost like there are shorts in the wires. Not sure how possible that is.

Would the ballast being bad cause the intermittent problems, or sometime timing wise. BTW everything I am doing is turning to the on position, not the auto position.

Thanks for the help. Love the car, but this is aggravating.

 

To be honest it sounds like you could use new bulbs to me, but at the very least, get a new halogen bulb for the high beam that went out (it probably was close to burning out and the movement did it in), and I'd recommend getting at least 1 HID bulb just to test in both sides in your low beam. It sounds like one of your bulbs might be done and the other almost done, so get a new one, try it in both sides and see what your results are. If it works in both sides, get another one. If it doesn't look into replacing your ballast(s). They can be replaced on the 2006-10, though it is not easy (which is why Lexus does not do it). You can find some guides on doing it online if you search. Alternatively, replacing the entire headlight assemblies with ballasts will also work.

Jeff

 

Thanks for the advice Jeff. Going to pick some up this upcoming week and will let everyone know.