Hi guys,

I just bought a used 05 TSX that had one of the headlights not lighting up. So since I had a brand new pair of aftermarket bulbs @8000k I replaced both to find out that my driver side ballast was no good. But on my passenger headlight the Bulbs turned on but only for 2 minutes. I immediatly assumed the bulb was bad but when I tested it, the bulb does turn back on if you switch it off and on. So my question is, Do the Stock OEM ballast handle aftermarket HIDs? If so, what are the requirements and if TSX owners have switch the HID bulb did they replace the whole kit with a aftermarket?

 

Are replacement D2S (?) bulbs expensive or something?

8k is going go be dim. Are they 35W or 55W bulbs?

 

They're DS2 running on 35W. I was just confused with because it looks like its not compatible? If the light does come on but then turn off, my natural instinct is to believe it could be the ballast but when i put my OEM back on it worked just fine. This is the first time where I see a bulb fail and be able to turn back on.

 

not all aftermarket bulbs are made with the same quality.

at 8000k something tells me they arent quality.
you're going to lose a lot of lumens with 8000k and you will be straining your eyes to see.

get some quality bulbs at 4300k - 6000k

 

I love my TSX OEM HIDs. They are brighter and shine further than my RDX and MDX. Not sure why the HIDs have gone down in light quality in other (newer) models (before LEDs)?

Hopefully you are not confusing the higher 8000K HIDs with brighter light output? HIDs with 8000k-10,000k-12,000k start to shift more into the blue to purple range; which, looks very cool. Once you get above 6000K, you are eliminating colors from the spectrum. Certain objects might change colors at night or be less visible because they are absorbing the light instead of reflecting it. Another issue is higher K lights causes more glare for on-coming drivers and less reflective visible light back to you behind the wheel. Your HIDs may not look as bright when driving and even look even worst in wet weather to you.

Like justnspace suggested, 4300k-6000K would represent the widest color spectrum that resembles daylight from morning, noon, or later afternoon color range. I think the standard for the TSX is 4300K. Maybe you can go with +8000K in your fogs if you have them on you 05 TSX.

 

I'm not truely concerned about maximum output etc but I've always had 6000k in all my cars and now 4300k Stock HID's and now I wanted to get something different like 8000k which I have seen before and used in different cars. I'm only here concerned with troubleshooting.

 

Thanks for the recommendation on which bulb I should get for visibility but I'm looking into of a troubleshooting parameters.

 

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine. You come asking for advice but won't take the suggestions of others? We're implying quality is in direct correspondence with your troubleshooting. You buy shitty products, you get poor troubleshooting results.


If you're already buying crappy bulbs and judging by your responses, you don't seem to really care about spending the proper money to get the job done, I'm going to be hesitant to even suggest buying new OEM ballasts and proper D2S bulbs. (the proper way to fix this)

So go on eBay, but some crappy HID kit, install it. (the half-assed way)

 

The bulbs might be of inferior quality...or might require more voltage to ignite than the OEM bulbs.

Hard to tell why they're not working. But...they're obviously not working. Maybe just move on? I doubt the 8000k bulbs were expensive. There's no reason they *shouldn't* work.

They're either junk. Or not compatible with the OEM ballast.

 

Problem solved. it was the ballast and fuses that needed to be replaced. thanks