I had a question to ask, which i was not able to get an answer from anywhere else. I tried asking Acura but I dont really trust them, because all they do is rip off their customers (ive worked for acura). I recently purchased a used acura tsx 04 back in may of 2009. The head lights were working fine until a couple days after i got my car back from the shop (was hit on the rear left door). Normally if my headlights dont work, i would assume that its the bulb thats out (i do not know too much about these things) but since i was in the accident im starting to think maybe it might be something else that is causing my headlights to be out. (it used to come on, then go off randomly.. now it stays off) My question is: If my head light is out (left) is it usually always the bulb or is there any other issues that could possibly be causing this. Where/How should i find out what the actually problem is? Acura wants me to replace the whole headlight, just by opening the hood the guy at acura says, "looks like youre going to need a new headlight".. he wont even give me a good reason why, he just says it will fix the problem. (imo, obviously if i purchase a whole new working headlight it will fix the problem..) If anyone can give me some advice on what to do, that would be greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH IN ADVANCE

 

Do your high-beams work fine? Are you sure the Acura service guy meant you need a whole new assembly and not just a new bulb? I can't think of any reason the guy would say that you need an entire assembly unless he could see physical defects or damage, caused by your accident, that is allowing moisture inside that kills your bulb. This could also be an issue with the HID ballast but I'm not sure how you troubleshoot this. I will need to consult my service manual when I get home.

 

First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to reply to this post!

And yes my high beams seem to work fine. And im pretty sure the acura service guy meant the whole new assembly. Because i asked him if it could just be a bulb problem and he jus told me most likely not. (in the area that I live, a lot of people do not choose to go to acura first to solve problems because their service is poor. imo i feel that all they think about is how to get the most money off their customers) The only reason why i went was just to see what they would tell me, see if it sounds reasonable.. and no1 else seems to be able to help me with this either. And there is no physical damage on my headlights from the accident, ive tried checking and nothing caught my eye.

 

oh, maybe i should include this as well. during the winter, here in virginia we had huge snow storm, couple feets of snow. the plow service here wasnt that great so there were like snow pot holes everywhere and it was just really rough to drive. could it be maybe from hitting all those rough patches that maybe cause a cable to get loose or something?

 

You could try swapping the right bulb to the left light connector to verify operation. If it works, it's bad bulb. If not, then it could be the igniter or the cable. However, you definitely don't need the entire headlamp assembly.

 

hm thats a pretty good idea, thanks! by any chance would you some how be able to explain how i could go about doing that? this is my first car and im still learning

 

i came accross a thread this person created asking questions about his headlights..

miamicarfans question was : " With HID headlights like the TSX has, when your headlights first go out, will they turn pink and remain pink or turn off or will they just go out and turn dark like regular headlights do without turning pink?

Has anybody here had to replace one of their HID headlights? Does it act like a regular headlight or does it have a unique brakedown process?"

sortudo7 replied : "The headlights usually do start to turn pink and begin to die down although on some occasions I have seen them merely go out, rare though. Usually they'll change color and warn you that it's time to change them. You will want to change both bulbs at the same time to keep a consistent color and beam. If you only replace one you will see a change (even if they're the same power, ex 4300K) since the bulbs life goes down with luminosity."

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ive actually never noticed any signs of my lights turning pink or giving any kind of signs that it was wearing out... maybe i'll double check to see if anything is unpluged or loose.. are these cables easy to access or will i have to take out my headlights to do so?

 

I have just replaced both low beam HID bulbs in my 2004 TSX. There is a unique breakdown process which starts by light going pinkish at first followed by flickering (aka cycling) as your ballast tries to reignite failing bulb and finally going completely out. As recommended by fellow forum readers I went with http://www.excelerateperformance.com/ for a pair of D2S bulbs for 99 bucks. They are a bit of a pain to replace but I managed to complete it during lunch in 30 min. I had to take the battery out for the driver's side. Hope this helps.

 

LOL, wow, that was weird reading what I wrote for some reason haha.

Could be a bunch of different factors regarding your light situation. Since the accident could have advanced issues/made them worse makes it hopefully an easier outcome. First do the bulb swap to see, if the problem remains then I imagine it's prob an issues with the ballast or ignitor. If it's working then more than likely the accident f'd up your bulb and it just busted. I had a bulb randomly explode in my sister's headlamp before even. I installed it and use gloves, never touched it. She doesn't mess with it either so on occasion weird things can happen. Hopefully it's just a bulb issue. If it's a ballast and/or ignitor it will get more expensive in a hurry to get replacement parts for it, but that's something to worry about if you have to do so.

What dealership do you go to since I'm in VA too? I could help you out if you're local in some troubleshooting, just shoot me a PM. I'm in NOVA (Fairfax/Springfield area mainly).

 

Oh really? I go to the Pohanka dealership in chantilly. I live in the NOVA area too (fairfax). Are the steps to switching the bulb easy? If maybe you can somehow quickly just explain some steps i could try it out. Never done this before, and cant seem to find a DIY post regarding it.

 

Oh yea, I've been there and they're actually pretty cool when I dealt with them. Of course it was very minor stuff or just info for a few things since I do it myself.

The steps to removing the bulbs isn't hard. 1) wear gloves and don't touch the bulb itself with your bare skin. If you do then clean it off immediately with an alcohol swab. 2) remove the rubber covers behind the bulbs. 3) remove the connector to the bulb 4) there is a pin in there you have to push towards the front of the headlight housing and then it pops back out. It uses pressure to hold in the bulb so will be a bit tough to remove unless you've done this before. 5) remove the bulb and you're set.

There should be a step by step explanation in the owner's manual but this is what I remember from when I swapped my headlight to the JDM ones. If you don't get it or need help just PM me and I can meet up with you, shouldn't take more than a few mins total.

 

hm, i tried using the steps you gave me to change the bulb but from what it looks like I might have to remove the headlight.. (i might just be looking at it wrong, to be honest it might just be the fact that i don't know exactly what im doing.) anyways i cant seem to get the cover off to where the bulb is. I have a spare EVO headlight just laying around in my garage and i was able to follow the steps on that to take the bulb out.. so i feel like i got the right idea as to how to remove the bulb but im not too sure what im doing wrong with my TSX.

 

^^http://www.justanswer.com/questions/...-tsx-headlight