sbuswell

About 2 weeks ago my passenger side headlight started going out intermittenly. When it went ou I'd flick the lights off and then back on and it would immediately come back on and then eventually after a little while would turn off again. Today when driving home from work at 6pm (dark out) both headlights went out. I flicked them off and on twice and they finally came back on. A few minutes later my passenger side light went out again, but the driverside remained on for 25mins or so until I got home. I checked the wiring and everything seems fine. Could this be a ballast or ignitor issue? If so where are they located and what should I look for as a possible culprit?

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like an igniter to me. My igniter caused my bulb to flash like that.

sbuswell

how do you diagnose a bad ignitor? Are they repairable or would they be in need of replacement? I assume there are two, one for each headlight?

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

swap ignitors and see if it does it to the other side. I don't know about repairable, I just replaced mine. There is one for each light. Its the wire that connects the bulb to the ballast.

dammitjim

sbuswell,
Use this DIY: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ight=light+diy
Swap igniters using that DIY and find out if it's that or the bulbs or ballast.
I have an igniter for a 2002-2003 TL for sale in the black market if you need one.

nguyen

its the ballast had the same issue bought a new one from ebay problem went away

jcygts6

or it could be something up with your wiring, I had to redo my hid to get it fixed, nothing was wrong with the ballasts

ice2fire11

did you do anything to your fog light switch - foglight mod?

it might be a ground issue somewhere if its not the ignitors

sbuswell

I'll try swapping ignitors this weekend and see if that's the culprit. Thanks for DIY link!

sbuswell

Since I lasted I've uncovered another problem. Now my drivers side light is going out intermittenly. I feel it to be a strange coincidence that both my headlights have bad ignitors or ballasts in this short a time frame. Would you guys think this could be a relay, ground or wiring problem? I want to go the cheap wa7y and work my way up if at all possible.

ice2fire11

X2

If you do not have access to a multi meter or know how to use one. My guess would to sub the power connections if possible

sbuswell

I checked the fuses and swapped a relay and that did nothing. The grounds look fine and the wiring looks fine, but not 100% sure. It's hard to tell if wiring is bad unless it's blatantly frayed, which mine is not. Again it's both headlights doing the same thing. Any other suggestions aside from replacing the ignitors or ballasts? Alternator overloading maybe?