JuicyJ

I had a common problem on our TL's HID headlight....sometimes the driver's side would act up.

Usually, it'd turn on when cold 95% of the time, occasionally it wouldn't turn on at all, and almost always would never "hot restrike". Seeing as how old the car is, I figured some new Philips D2R bulbs and OEM style ballasts/igniters would be a good idea (also, my headlights were 2 different colors, the driver side being pinkish). I also bought TYC headlight housings because the old OEM headlights were trashed.

After replacing the driver side assembly, it still had a hot-restrike issue. It would cold start 100% of the time, but if you were to turn off the HID and turn it back on, it would take a while to re-light.

To attempt my procedure, you'll need:

-CRC QD Electronic Contact Cleaner
-DeOxit D5
-Brake Parts cleaner
-remove front bumper cover and headlight

All HID lights, including the older orange streetlights, and the old sports field lights that were prevalent before LED, would not "hot restrike" until they cooled down. That is why power outages usually caused an extended dark period before you'd see the lights restart. This is because the HID bulb impedance is very high when the tube is hot, and with cars, the way to get around that is a ballast that can seriously crank up the re-starting voltage to initiate an arc in the hot HID bulb. However, doing this creates a much higher than usual current draw when restarting a hot headlight. It lasts less than a second, BUT...if there is ANY problem with your wiring, this surge can't be handled, and your HID headlight can't restart.

Looking through the TL FSM schematics, I quickly ruled out the +12v side being bad, either from a relay or bad fuse socket. Because the +12v to our ballast also feeds the high beams, it'd be pretty obvious if the +12v was bad.

I found that we have a ground for the driver headlight, "G301" on a 2003 TL, behind the headlight, under the coolant overflow bottle. G301 is a PITA to access, I removed the driver side headlight and the coolant overflow bottle to get to it.

I unbolted it, the ground terminal can be brought up to a working area behind the headlight, and I wire-brushed the ring terminal, brake cleaner too. I also cleaned the 10mm bolt, it's threads, under and between the washer, and the threads in the car-body.
Next, I rinsed all of those parts with CRC QD Electronics Contact Cleaner. Let it dry, and then I applied DeOxit D5 to the threads, the bolt and the ring terminal. DeOxit D5 de-oxidizes and protects contact surfaces. Lastly, I reinstalled G301.

I also used CRC QD and DeOxit D5 on the ballast connector where the harness connects to the low beam ballast.

The HID headlight now works perfectly. Those connections are at least 20+ years old on our cars now, and G301 was heavily coated in crud and corrosion. I suspect that cleaning the ballast connector helped too.

Jon M

Good Job!

whitetiger5

JuicyJ

I feel like there's a hidden message.....Am I about to get smacked?

whitetiger5

Lol. me saying good job when everyone else already knows this.