My passenger's side ballast seems to be acting up:

Both headlights ignite, warms up, driver's side stays on, but passenger's side goes through different shades of colors before shutting off-- turns lighter blue, then deep yellow, then pale yellow, then light goes out!

All I do is turn the lights off and then on, hoping the faulty side will remain on, but it does not, either shutting off right away, or within 5 minutes, and longest is 20 minutes.

So, am I right for guessing the ballast is the culprit? Cuz the bulb does turn on before going dark... It's an 01 CL-S.

 

try putting the drivers side bulb into the passengers and see what happens. If it stays on, then its the bulb thats bad (I can sell you the set that I pulled from my car which are 4300k). If it does the same thing, then its the ballast..

 

How do I switch it out? Is it under the hood or behind the wheels (like replacing signals)?? I've never replaced the hid bulbs before.

 

If you look on the back of the headlight, you will see a circular cap where it says that you have to be careful because there is 25,000volts behind it or something like that.. Anyway, disconnect the wires that are to the right or left of the cap depending on which side of the car you are on (its not on the sides, a bit off center to the side from the top) and beneath it you will see a security torx screw. You can either go and buy the bits which are cheap to take it out or use a thin flathead. Once the screw is out you twist the cap off and you will see the block that connects to the bulb. twist that about 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn counter clockwise (I'm pretty sure that its counter clockwise) and that pull away. Once thats off, you will see a little wire that holds the bulb in. Its hinged so you dont have to remove it completely. Just unlatch it and the bulb will come out. Pull it out and make sure not to touch the glass (hold it by the plastic base only). then to put it back in its the reverse of what i wrote above, however, the bulb will only go into the socket a certain way. So what i do is put it in and twist until it locks in. then the little wire thing, then the power connector and this is where I test to make sure that its working by just connecting those wires that you disconnected earlier.

Oh and yeah its behind the headlight under the hood..

 

I have a problem with my drivers side headlight. It only goes on when it wants to. I think it's my igniter, because when I turn my lights on, I hear this loud buzzing noise coming from my drivers side lamp only, while the passenger light goes on without a problem. What I've been doing was just flicking the switch on and off repeatedly until my drivers light finally comes on. Sometimes it takes 2 flicks of the switch, and others it takes 5 or so minutes. Does anyone know what this could be if it's not my igniter?? And if it is, will Acura fix it for me, or are they gunna bust huevos since I have aftermarket bulbs in there. . . ?!

 

if you are still under warranty, take it to them and see what they say. I don't think that they should give you trouble with the bulbs...

I'm not sure, but I think that it may be your ballast going bad... Same thing happened to mine I might add..

 

Hopefully it's just the bulb. . .Igniter and/or ballast sound like they'd be a pretty penny to fix if not covered!!

 

I saw that warning box, and I was too afraid to go ahead with it but it did look like the headlight access is right there, thanks for the good info, I'll look at it tonight and see what happens.

 

If you disconnect the wires that I told you about, you will not get zapped.. You just have to make sure that your headlights are off and thats it. But once you disconnect that cable, there is no other wires that go to the HID bulb or ballast. Simple 12volt connection there which turns to 25000 in the ballast. You dont have to worry about anything. I have changed the bulbs in mine about 6 times and changed them in out TL twice and my friends RDX once already. All were because we wanted a different color not because they went bad. Well the first time I changed mine, it was because I thought that the bulb was going bad..

 

Just to clarify, the igniter is included in the inverter unit, its all one piece so if it is shot....you have to buy the whole inverter. MIne went and I didnt feel like payiing almost 400 bucks so I got one used. check www.acuraautomotiveparts.org for the part. Its just one piece. INstall takes around a half hour since you have to partially remove the front bumper to get at it when replacing

 

If your worried about getting zapped just unplug the battery to put your mind as ease.