So on the drivers side of my car, the HID low beam is out and the high beam comes on dimly on both sides. The fuse for the left headlight is blown and every time i replace it it blows again. I replaced the light bulbs but im still having the same problem and the fuse blew again. I think ive narrowed it down to the ballast/ignitor but i want to make sure i'm buying the right parts.. If anyones had this problem and could help that would be great. Is it the silver block that screws into the bottom of the headlight assembly? or is it the wire that goes from that block to the lightbulb itself? or is it something else? I really don't want to buy the wrong part when they're like 150 dollars on ebay.

By the way the light went out after water got inside everything after a small collision



Thanks for the help!

 

Hey Ryan5003, it's apparent that the water damaged the electrical components of the headlamps. The easiest and most cost effective thing to do, would be to simply buy an aftermarket HID kit to replace all of your old stuff. There have been many previous posts on this subject. Search threads for HID and check the "DIY" sticky.

 

I had the same problem with my '03 TL. I had to buy a whole new HID kit with new ballast.

 

by now you have found the many threads on this subject
59$ www.hidextra.com gets 2 new ballast- 2 bulbs- everything you need
its easy diy mod to aftermarket..for way cheap!!
get 35 watt ballast and 5000k bulbs

 

Yeah so i looked at that website a million times but i must have been looking in the wrong place because i'd look at the kits for our cars specifically but there were no low beam options.. but now i looked again and figured it out that i should have just clicked on the D2R kits or whatever because i found exactly what youve been talking about. Anyways i ended up buying a ballast from a fellow acurazine member so all is well and good! The part came in today so i have yet to replace it but i'm feeling pretty good that it'll work this time. Thanks for all the help!!

 

Hopefully the new "used" ballast will fix ya up, along with the last new bulb.

Carefully inspect all the other HID components and connectors for signs of corrosion or water damage.
Make sure that whatever caused the water to enter is completely repaired and sealed, otherwise ya will be in the same boat again.

 

I hope the ballast that you picked up take care of your trouble.

If you still have problems the cheapest way to trouble shoot HID issues is to move one component at a time from the working side to the none working side to find the cause. If you move it all over and still have no lights then your hunting some type of short or grounding issue in the harness. let us know how it turns out.

 

At the end of the day, it probably would've been easier and more cost effective to have just replaced the entire "OEM" hid set-up with a newer replacement kit, IMO !!!

 

haha youre probably right but like i said i was having trouble looking for what i needed and at this point i just want it fixed. Oh well hindsight is 20/20 but i'm also glad i was able to help out another member here.

Ill update when i get a chance to replace everything which will be a couple days because I will be on vacation

 

Anyways, in the past six months, I replaced the ballast with the used one and it worked perfect until one really rainy day in December when I discovered that the same light was out again.. Turns out the aftermarket headlight housing wasn't completely water tight and water dripped in and burned out that ballast I dumped a hundred dollars on. (Yes 3.2TLc you ended up right about the aftermarket one )

NOTE to anyone who has had water leaking issues in the past, or who is buying an aftermarket headlight housing -- Get a small tube of clear waterproof silicone at Lowes/Home Depot/hardware store for a few bucks and fill in EVERYWHERE there might be a leak in the seals on the headlight. Trust me it takes 5 minutes and it will save you time and money in the future.

This stuff:

Anyways this time I took everyone's advice and bought the HID kit from HIDextra for $70. Once it comes in, you pretty much have to replace all the wiring in the headlight system. You'll have everything you need in the kit. It's all pretty much plug and play..until you get to the plug coming out of the car. There are a few ways to go about this. One way would be to splice the headlight wire coming out of the car. Another option (the one I did) is to take the black plastic plug off of the ballast. This is simple; just get a small screwdriver, undo the screws and pull the thing out.

Once you do that, plug the connector into the car to determine which side is positive and which side is negative. To do this, just look at the wires just behind the plug, you should see a red and black wire peeking out from where the black protective covering almost meets the plug. Be 100000% sure that you know which side is positive and negative (it's pretty obvious) and mark it on the black connector you pulled off once you unplug it from the car.

Before your car is all taken apart, pick up some wire connectors from an autoparts store, I used these, about $4:


From there, plug the new, aftermarket wire into the connectors you bought, and plug those into the correct, corresponding positive/negative part of the connector you pulled off the ballast, crimp them, tape them, make sure it won't come undone or get wet.

Then all you gotta do is plug everything in and find a place to put the new ballast! (it wont fit like the old one) I found a good place for me is to use the little sticky things that it comes with and stick it to the frame just below the headlight bracket. Perfect fit.

From there, just put everything back together, replace the headlight fuse if it's broken, and enjoy your new headlight!

Hope I helped!

And sorry I don't have pics of the process of replacing everything. I didn't think about it at the time, but honestly, it's ridiculously easy.