I've got a 2005 LS430 ML, I've owned it for close to a year now and i'm loving it. Recently my passenger side headlight stopped working completely. Swapped the bulbs side to side, determined it was the Ballast that had gone bad. So I ordered the new ballast, took everything apart, plugged it in before completely installing it just to make sure it worked, which it did. Then it came time to actually replace the ballast. There is absolutely no way to get the thing out without cutting wires or completely disassembling the entire headlight. Confident in my soldering and wiring abilities, I decided i'd just splice the wires from the old ballast. Seemed like a good idea at the time, got me a little extra slack to work with which was nice. I did it properly, soldered and everything, used identical wires and now I've got nothing. Extremely frustrating. So...am I missing something here? Is there a simple way of just pulling the old ballast out and throwing the new one in? Just looking for input before I take the bumper apart to dive in again.

 

Bump, how do you do this please.

 

Did you cut the red and black wires that are connected to the grey plastic cover/cap?

The grey plastic piece that is connected to the ballast can be removed with a small flat head screw driver. The screw driver is used as a lever on one side and you'll need to pull up on the other side. Essentially you're wiggling the connector out of the white plastic piece that is attached on the ballast. The retainer clip on the white plastic piece that is attached to the ballast is extremely small and prone to break very easy. Once you remove this you are left with the red and black wires that are attached to the grommet, ballast plastic cover and input connector that goes to the wiring harness of the car.