My passenger headlight went out a while ago. I've read a few threads here talking about some of problems and fixes. And instead of taking the advice and switching the bulb from the working headlight to the other to see if it would work, I went ahead and jumped on the deal here and bought replacement bulbs. I took my 2003 TL-S to a local Honda dealership to get them installed. They told me it would take 15 minutes and about $20 to unstall them. An hour and a half later they where in and still no light from the bum headlight. On top of that, they broke one of the clips on the headlight and had to order me a new one. They paid for it and installed it for free. Not before asking me to pay for it first though. I told them you break it, you fix it. So in reading here again, I figured it had to be the ballast. The dealer told me it looked like there was heat damage to that unit. So I start searching ebay and find a few "cheap" ones ($100-$200). The dealer wanted $500!! This week I warm up my car, as usual, to go to the gym in the morning. When I get out there and turn on the lights, both fire up! When I leave the gym I tryied them and no luck. The headlight is out again. It has fired up the last three workout mornings in a row. but doesn't fire up the rest of the day. I'm not doing anything different since it originally went out. Whats the deal? Anyone have a clue?

 

maybe a short in the ballast? have you checked the wiring? the low beam hid system aint all that complicated. try searching the forum, youll see tons of info. for the hid low beams.
just my two cents.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'll do some searching. Anyone else deal with a similar problem?

 

you prolly have to repair a solder joint on the pcb. if it is temperature dependent failure like youre experiencing, there is a very good chance that something must be resoldered.

take, if you will, the pgm-fi main relay scenario some hondas suffered from...once its hot outside, they dont want to work. turns out its just a bad solder joint that expands or contracts too much with the temperature.

 

How do I spot this? I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to electrical stuff.

 

i had a problem with my headlights too, i put zenons in and they worked for a bout a month. then one blew out and i had to replace it, then the fuse blew on my left head light and right right headlight recently blew out. also i noticed the two clips you attach to the bulb were getting brown and melting and i dont know what to do because it is a real pain.

 

had the same problem a few months back. It turned out to be my ignitor (the wire that connects the ballast to the bulb) if not try replaceing the ballast. I blew 2 ballasts due to moisture in my headlight so i finally got new headlight assemblies.

pretty sure its the ignitor though.

good luck. i hope it comes out cheap. certain things on our cars can cost more than you think to repair. im speaking from experience.

 

I had a similar problem, started about 4 years ago and am still dealing with it. First I swapped bulbs and the passenger light still wouldn't fire up, then I ordered a new bulb, still nothing, I ordered a new ballast and igniter, still nothing! Then all of a sudden one day it fired up!!! Now it will come on 50-60% of the time when I start my car, I've come to find out if it doesn't fire up when I start my car to just wait a few minutes (or start driving) and turn my lights on and off until it fires up, sometimes this will work the first time and sometimes it takes 15 tries. This has worked 95% of the time in making the passenger bulb fire up, I've had a few problems in the rain not getting it to work. I took it to the dealer and they inspected everything and had no answers. And I live in Key West so it's never cold here, but I have noticed that it will fire up better after the car has been running.

 

One member, opened up the ballast, clean up all the rusted parts, sealed it, and it works consistently. Your ballast may have rusted parts causing intermittent problem.

 

I get questions all the time about how to tell which part failed when headlight systems fail. If you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can quickly diagnose the problem by swapping out parts from driver to passenger side, or vise versa.

Start first by checking your fuses. If they look fine, your problem could be the ballast (the larger metal box), the igniter (basically the cord from box to bulb) or the bulb. Troubleshoot by swapping them out between the driver and passenger side, and eliminating the problem part. Remember to wear clean cotton gloves when handling the bulb, as they can't have any contaminants on them.

I also recommend that you seal the connection were the ignitor hooks into the ballast with clear silicone caulk when you install your new ballasts. The biggest killer of ballasts is MOISTURE and this is the most common point of entry. If you look at the part re-design in 2007, Acura put a HUGE rubber grommit on this connection to keep moisture out.