For the past month or so, my passenger side headlight has been out, but if I turned the lights on and off a few times quickly, it would come back on. I was thinking it was fusing itself back. Well it's now officially dead, so today I stroll into my local auto parts dealer today (O'Reilly Auto) and low and behold, they are asking $92 a piece for these things! There has to be a cheaper option, a whole-seller or something! Please God don't let my headlight low beam bulbs cost $90+!!!!

 

Yes, HIDEXTRA.COM. I suggest getting a pair so they match. It will only cost you half that cost.

 

^^^ ebay??? what type of bulb is out ? 9006?

EDIT: if you are looking for HID's you can go to HIDEXTRA or DDMTUNING

 

Unfortunately when you have hid's you gotta pay. They msrp at the Dealer for $145 each. But from your description of the problem your having it could also be your ballast or igniter. My headlight did the same thing and it turned out to be the ballast.

My advice to you is before you go buying new bulbs switch the good bulb out with the one that's flickering. If it doesn't fix the problem you'll know it's probably the ballast going bad which these cars are known for. In that case I'd purchase a whole new kit with bulbs ballasts and igniters, from a site like DDMtuning.com or retrofitsource.com. look to spend around $50-75.

 

I got a pair for about $30 on eBay. Still going strong after ~50k?

 

As always, thanks a bunch guys! I found this at one of the websites that were referenced to me. Would this be all I would need to take care of any problem I have?

http://www.hidextra.com/d2r-d2s-standard-hid-kit?qty=1

 

Try the bulb swap method first like mentioned above. If it still has the issue on that side, then your ballast, if it fixed it and the problem is now on the other side, then it's the bulb. Just order the bulbs and not the kit.

If it is the Ballast, just get the full kit from HID Extra with Ballast and replace the OEMS as it is way cheaper than OEM and work well.

 

The ballast's go out before the bulbs usually.

 

Great thread and tips. Might lights have been flickering for a couple weeks now. Will have to try the swap and see what happens.

 

So do I have Xenon lights right now from the factory, or just HID? If I don't, I might just buy the full kit and say the hell with it. If I were to buy the kit, would I need the relay harness as well? Where can I just buy the ballast if that's all I need.

 

You have HID's. The kit has everything, you just need to cut and splice in a new power wire.

When I bought my HID's from HIDExtra, they did not have the d2r. They sold me a d2c, which is a projector bulb on a universal base. I don't know if they were bs'ing me or they really didn't know there was a difference. Then I tried to return them but they would not refund the kit without a restocking fee. The reason I bought the kit from them was they claimed their kit just plugged in, no cutting. Well that's if you are converting from halogen to hid. In my case I already have hid's so I had to cut and splice a few wires. No big deal, but I would have bought them somewhere else if I known that as the other places sell the correct bulb for cheaper and with a better warranty.


http://suvlights.tripod.com/suvlight...enon-Bulbs.htm
HIDExtra D2C http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...g/P1010176.jpg

 

If bulbs are all you need just buy the bulbs. ALWAYS replace them in pairs.

 

I replaced both ballasts and bulbs a little while ago, and I paid $165 total... I got everything from TRS.

 

like others said, you can get a cheap pair on Ebay, mne were 10, Philips if you want something a little better

 

^ This. The Retrofit Source has great customer service and the products are good quality.

 

But before you order, do what others have already suggested: Switch the bulbs to see if that's really the problem; if a bulb that does work doesn't work on one side, then it has to be the ballast.

I also would check the two 20 A fuses in the engine compartment first thing! The ballast that went bad on me blew the fuse in the process.

 

I had the same problem and it turned out to be the ballast and not the bulb. Got the OEM bulbs from Amazon and got the ballast from xtralights.com My lights are bright as ever. If you can't do it yourself, find a shop that will do this for you. It'll save you a lot of money compared to taking it to the dealer...

 

Can you be more specific on which wires you have to splice? Was it like "red wire to other red wire" or more complicated? I'm guessing you have to splice the bulb socket onto the wires coming from the ballast and cut off whatever comes on the end?

I need to replace a ballast so will be ordering a kit but figured there might be a catch since the car already has HIDs...

 

Power wires for the ballast.

That part comes with the kit ready to go. No mods needed

It wasn't as plug and play as they make it seem.

The new ballast has a 9006 connector on it for halogen to HID conversions. I disconnected the + and - wires going to the OE ballast and cut the connector off and spliced a 9006 connector on.

The OE ballast is mounted to the bottom of the headlight housing and the wires from the the ballast to the bulb is sealed in the housing. You can't remove the OE ballast without sealing the big hole. I left the OE ballast to keep the hole sealed and ran the wires through the plastic cover behind the lamp and used RTV to seal the wires to the cap.

Really easy to do but I was misled by HIDextra's plug and play, uses OE connector discription.

 

Like RooEng said, you're gonna have to cut off the old connector coming from the car that powers the ballast, and rewire the 9006 on. Make sure you wire/spice the new connector on correctly by comparing to the OEM connection that you just cut half of off, and also double-check that the new 9006 connection has the right orientation before you wire it on.

This is how I mounted my ballasts:


I used a foam piece to seal the hole LOL!!

A bigger picture is here:
https://acurazine.com/forums/attachm...7&d=1340646404

 

I just bought a ballast off this guy https://acurazine.com/forums/car-parts-sale-361/01-03-acura-cl-oem-ballast-ignitors-863151/
alot cheaper than the dealer and ebay.

 

My drivers side headlight has been driving me crazy too. I've swapped both ballasts and bulbs back and forth yet the passenger's side is good everytime, only the driver's side is having issues.

I'm thinking it may be the wiring leading to the ballast, there must be something wrong there I can see the light flickering before unsuccessfully turning on when it starts up. I have an aftermarket HID kit for the record.

 

It does sound wiring related... Do the contacts/pins look corroded or weathered?

 

So my light starting working again and, you know, out of sight, out of mind, well now it's back off again. The bulb is good, so I'm guessing that 95% of you were right and it's a ballast issue. (My bulb flicks for a split second before not juicing up.) I'm PM'd the guy with the one ballast left, but back to my original question. Would it make more sense for me to just buy a new kit for both sides that includes everything, then I can sell my good ballast and possibly my old lights to recoup some of my $$$$?

 

If they are OEM ballasts, I'd go ahead and do both sides with aftermarket parts...that's what I did.