Mrhappi

First post, serious question. Haven't had the car long and realized moisture in passenger headlight assembly. Haven't had trouble associated with that for awhile. But as of last night as my wife went turn the headlights on they did not come on. After turn in off then on the drivers would come on. Then off and on and just the passengers came on. It takes either a few minutes with them off to get lucky and both come on.
I was wondering if the bulbs are bad would they still come on intermittently come on?
Does anyone know a rock solid way of troubleshooting the system to narrow down the fault?
I am not at all familiar with HID systems but from reading on this site, components can be very expensive so I am trying to minimize costs to fix.
if anybody is able to help or lend a helping word it would be much appreciated!

01tl4tl

welcome to acurazine- we have your answer!
please note that by skimming the thread titles in main forum and this problem section you will find numerous threads on the headlight failure
without repeating all those threads on the background of problem
Suffice to say the cheapest way to for sure fix is replace an aging water failure prone HID setup with a new aftermarket unit

pretty easy diy- we have a large diy section,
many like www.hidextra.com where you want the standard `kit` for our car, 35 watt ballast and 5000k color bulbs
kit has 2 ballast 2 bulbs and 2 connector wires
you provide 4 wire splices or connectors for new ballast

Because we have hid its just cut and splice and play
ready for the great news?!!!
$59 dollars ,,,,, before coupon, found on their website or online
50 bucks to your door in the USA!
really good parts at wholesale price
I would not buy anything cheaper, or more expensive
many of us run this system with no problems, and the rare parts failure results in a quick no hassle replacement

again welcome to acurazine, have a look thru the sub section titles and a look at main thread titles for items to watch for in your baby

register at 1 800 382 2238 x5 and www.owners.acura.com (store radio code and get free owner book download) need cars VIN for both
ask the human if all recalls are completed
we only have a few but worth asking

Mrhappi

I could understand if both were out or more than one ballast was out.
I did skim through quite a bit of the threads to see what has been suggested.
But most just end up with throw outs about the aftermarket kits.
I'm more looking for OEM equipment.
If a ballast goes out will it either work or just stop working or has anyone had one work intermittently?

3.2TLc

The main reason that most folks will suggest replacing the old original HID low beam set-up with aftermarket kits is to keep costs down. The OEM components are very expensive to purchase and don't always appropriately fix an old system which has been compromised by moisture. A single OEM part can cost as much as an entire new replacement kit which will efficiently restore the dependability of your headlights. Your money, your choice.

Groovemaster

Most times it will work intermittently. Unless a ballast has a major power issue (that blows fuses) it typically will have moisture infiltrate its casing (and sometimes components fail from age as well). This will cause the components in the ballast to slowly corrode. The corrosion will change the values of the components on the circuit board, so that they are no longer in the range of the original design of the ballast. This will cause a number of rectifiers, diodes, resistors and output transformers to have incorrect values. The bulbs have a broad range of acceptance for ignition and burn voltages. When the ballast falls outside of that range (usually lower values, as the age/corrosion lowers the current output), the bulb will not ignite. Turning the lights off and on again forces a current rush across the circuit board, and will typically provide a higher output voltage, which in turn will ignite your bulb. Eventually, however, the values of the aging/corroding components in the ballasts become to bad to overcome, that the ballast has a complete failure. Since I have already written a book here, I will follow up by saying the technology in our current setup is over a decade old, and the newer, cheaper, digital ballasts and lights in todays off the shelf kits are much better than our OEM kits, and the ONLY reason to buy an OEM ballast would be because you were not educated about the newer kits on the marketplace.

3.2TLc

Yeah, thanks for the very detailed explanation of why it's advisable to consider replacing the old OEM lighting with the latest technology offered within the aftermarket "HID" replacement kits for a cheap and easy peace of mind solution to the old headlamps. Can ya sign a copy of that book, please ?

Mrhappi

Cant really say no when someone puts it like that. Heh.
Will start looking into it all. Thank you for the well written reply!

Groovemaster

Your welcome. Knowledge is the best remedy...

tacotruck

I had this problem too but the po had wired in some extra lights and that was the problem