Recently my original HID bulbs on my 2003 TL-S started turning into that dying purple-ish color. Soon enough my driver's side finally goes out and won't come back on.

So I purchased some cheap-o replacement ones from amazon and replaced the original bulbs. Everything worked fine for a day. Then on the next day, I had the headlights on for about 20 minutes and then I see that the passenger side starts flickering and then goes out. I turn off the headlights and back on and its back on again. Sometimes it stays on for 30 minutes, other days 5 minutes before flickering.

It's been happening a lot more frequently ever since I put them on (about a week ago). And today, my driver's side actually flickered once, but stayd on. Can it be that these cheap replacement bulbs are just bad? There's no moisture in my headlights and I don't think my ballasts are bad (hopefully).

 

Cheap bulbs can flicker but it will go away with time only after you put roughly around 1-3 hours of use they must start to light up normally..

If you are under warranty just change them out if it bothers you.. I've been using all kind of replacement bulbs (From OEM to 15 dlls pair replacements) and the Cheapo tend to flicker when new but it will go away with time...

BUT They must not flicker when they have more than 5 minutes on, That says they are badly constructed. Flickers occurs only in the first few minutes after firing them out if they flicker while driving = Use Warranty.

 

Hey CrazymOnkey, so your OEM setup is still good with no moisture or corrosion ?
If your driver's side lamp died a normal death, and the passenger side was still ok....use that known good one to verify operation of the flickering side. ~ As ya know, ya get what ya pay for. Try to stick to better brands for less problems.

 

Yeah. I'm going to try and stick the non-dead OEM headlight back in and see whats happening. Hopefully I didn't touch it with my fingers after taking them out. I used latex gloves when taking out the old ones and putting in the new ones so I doubt it would be a problem. No moisture or corrosion from what I can see.

Does it matter that the cheap brand says "D2R/D2S" on the label? Possibly that might be a problem? I know our cars are D2R but I thought I have read about people using D2S as well with a little modification?

$10 seems so cheap for a pair of bulbs. Couldn't resist.