DP01TL

Hey guys, I figured I would ask before we get cold weather here, but I last winter I had an issue with one of the HID headlights (passenger side) where it would not turn on right away. It would eventually turn on after a while.

During warm weather I have zero issues. They turn on consistently all the time during weather that is above freezing (32 degrees) but below freezing it will consistently NOT turn on right away. It also seems as if the colder it is out the longer it takes to turn on.

Any ideas?

I looked through a bunch of threads before posting this and I have not come across one yet that mentions this type of issue. I did see threads stating they can get water in the ignitor and that can cause non-starting issues. When I replaced the headlamp housings a year ago, I didn't notice any water sounds or anything else out of place with the headlight components when I moved them over to the new housings. I have unplugged and replugged all the electrical connections and verified everything is tight, making connection and everything else as much as I can.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

It is a 2001 TL Base, for reference. I just ordered a set of rear tail lamp gaskets to hopefully get rid of a water intrusion issue I noticed into the trunk area when I redid the suspension. I am hoping after all these little things I will have a reliable and trouble free experience for a while.

Jon M

Hi, You can't get to the ignitor and ballast without taking the front bumper off. You can find several videos on youtube, it is not hard to take it apart. I would recommend you replace the ignitors and ballasts it is likely the problem is there. Always replace the ignitors and ballast as a new pair. If you are concerned about water getting inside you can use RTV to seal up any openings before installing.

DP01TL

If you notice, I already stated I moved everything over to new housings, which require you to remove the bumper and everything else to replace them, so I already have done all of that...

I was looking for someone input from someone who KNOWS what is going on. As you can tell by my initial post, I can make all the speculation myself, but I figured I wasn't the only one to actually run into this problem before.

Jon M

Yes, your post implied that you moved them last year but did not replace them. Other people than yourself read these forum posts and need additional information. If you are not concerned with anyone other than yourself then the suggestion of looking at youtube could be ignored if you are able to remember how you did it last time.
Just because another person may experience the same symptoms does not mean the solution to those symptoms would be the same. I am sure you would have eventually been able to figure that out, maybe not.


May you receive all the help you deserve.

DP01TL

Look, there are a TON of useless posts on here and very few "gems" outlining specific issues and specific fixes. How do I know, because I actually used the search function and reviewed each and every post about HIDs or just about any of the subjects I will post about on here BEFORE I post.

There are far too many "Just replace it all" posts which make no sense. Your post just attempted to do the same here.

At one point everyone and their brother tries to "help" and that "help" was nothing more than an attempt to increase post counts, since it was either a knee jerk "replace it all" or was less informative than the original post itself.

Obviously, I know I can "replace it all" and would rather avoid that since certain parts are hard to come by and aftermarket garbage is just that, mostly garbage. It was OBVIOUS by so many HID posts on here that there are many aftermarket fanboys trying to drum up business considering that others have posted they followed their advice and have non-consistent startup and/or generalized failures. The LED conversion posts are even worse considering you lose the weathersealed aspect of the headlights once you start cutting holes in the cover for "fan cooling" of the LED unit. Honestly, no OEM would EVER use LEDs like that, so that should be a MASSIVE clue to ANYONE that you jsut avoid such clumsy tech and only go with solutions that are self-contained and passive.

A given aftermarket supplier is great if they ONLY sell high-quality replacements that work as good as OEM. The VAST majority of those posted either STARTED as high quality and de-evolved to sell whatever they could, or were just slinging cheap aftermarket stuff at a markup to begin with.

Fact of the matter is I asked if anyone, in particular, has run into non-starts attributed to the cold. Considering electricity doesn't care at all about the temperatures vehicles see to function, that would mean it is more than likely either a cold-solder joint (or a bad capacitor or something of that sort) that changes with termperature, or a moisture problem that, hopefully, someone has attempted to fix and maybe succeeded at. I am doubting a true "water" issue due to the fact it tracks with temperature and once somehting is frozen nothing will cause it to fully "thaw" at temps well below freezing.

I am sorry that you feel that you were being snubbed. I was being MUCH more generous about pointing out that the information provided was worthless, but you decided to jump to being nasty. Please refrain from replying if you cannot be civil.

thoiboi

Enough with the ranting, I think reading comprehension and searching old threads just aren't your strong suits so here I'll do it for you... from back in 2018, a very intelligent guy once posted:

You really think it's a good idea to troubleshoot a cold solder joint in an HID ballast with the the thousands of volts it can output... Just get a replacement kit like the one listed above and be done with t..

DP01TL

thoiboi, I wasn't going to mention anyone in particular, but you were the one I was referring to... And you, of course, had to respond in EXACTLY the way I didn't want the discussion going...

Doing soldering on electrical items, including balasts is not rocket science and well within the scope of plenty of those with engineering background, such as I. I would PREFER to know if it is something simple that can be resolved without having to spend money on sub-standard aftermarket garabage.

OEM ballasts and such are much higher quality than the VAST majority of the aftermarket stuff. I would rather NOT go the an aftermarket vendor and waste moneyt on something that will not fit in the stock spots and cause issues with reliability. THAT is the whole point.

I do not believe the OEM ballasts are available anymore and, once again, I am discrediting the whole "water intrusion" issue as it does not track with teh symptoms experienced.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

It appears the OEM ballasts (33144-S0K-A01 - Inverter, Hid System ; Control Module) are available; however, they are $354.75 each.
33144-S0K-A01 Genuine Acura Hid System Inverter (acurapartswarehouse.com)

If you google search that part number, there are many used 'roll the dice' units that can be found if this is your preferred choice.
An example:
1999-2002 Acura TL INVERTER HID SYSTEM 33144S0KA01 HLB351D12 - 4 oem b13 | eBay

Good Luck!

thoiboi

i mean clearly you know more than any of us and years of common problems on this thread (classic engineer mentality) so please go ahead and purchase OEM and go about your merry way.

DP01TL

Well, I finally tore apart the ballast... It is totally potted in silicone, so I started looking for a replacement...

Couldn't find much that was "reasonable" price-wise, so I went through my shelves of "new parts"...

I have parts for tons of car projects I either haven't gotten to, or I sold the vehicle they were originally for... In that set of parts i found a bunch of HID kits, one for my Explorer, one for a Mustang I sold last year... I also found LEDs to replace the foglights in my MKS (I hate the cheaper HIDs in those locations as one of them will usually not light on the first try), as well as fog lights for the Explorer as well...

I checked out the extra HID kit that no longer has a purpose, it is one of the nicer kits that have the digital ballasts (supposed to be 100% sure they are going to light with no flicker), so I went ahead, cut off the factory connector off the bad ballast, wired it up to a 9006 connector so it would allow me to plug in the HID module to the factory wiring. Then I cut off the 880 bulb it had near the bulb and connected that to the D2R connector I removed from the stock ignitor. I soldred all the connections and used self-fusing silicone tape (rated at 8000v per layer) to wrap the connections with 1 inch on each side of the splice and 6-7 layers, so I don't have to worry about high voltage issues.

I then fed the connectors for the bulb through the stock opening at the bottom of the housing, using the stock grommet I removed from the original harness going to the ignitor, and once done I put the cap on the housing like stock. The ignitor was, of course, removed from the cover as well.

First test was 100% successful. Lit up and had full brightness.

I then mounted the HID module to the included bracket and used the washer reservoir filler neck mounting bolt location to hang the HID module. I zip tied all the wiring away and together and the only thing I will do is figure out a more secure way of mounting the ignitor module the new HID system has somewhere solid. I am thinking of a simple clip-on bracket that will mount to the steering fluid reservoir bolt location. But, as it stands it is protected and not able to bounce around and nothing can short, so I am good for a few weeks before I figure out the details...

The BIG PLUS here is that I NEVER have to remove the damn bumper to get at ANY of the HID stuff... It is all accessible from the engine compartment. The way ti is done I can literally just plug in anhy of the HID modules that have a 9006 power connection and it uses the stadnard aftermarket simple plugs for the bulbs connection, so it is literally plug-and-play for replacement with many many many options out there... Including going with a quality Morimoto setup if i want down the road. But at least I don't have to pay a ton for all the extra "plug-and-play" stuff that is needed with our cars.

And, NO, I did not do the drivers side... It is functioning fine and I ahve the extra unit to mess with if it does end up going out on me... Who knows, maybe in spring I will just end up putting it in, but I am so burned out on working on stuff for this car I am done with everything but the remote start/alarm and stereo installation.

jkpiitch

DP01TL ..... hey man good improvised fix on that with the extra parts you had. I am looking at replacing the ballast on my 99 TL (passenger side) my headlight will not come on at all in any outside air temp ..... your opinion ? ... do you think a junkyard replacement would be worth trying ? Do these things fail randomly, or regularly.
Also .... stupid question time..... could it be possible to light the other side with a jump from the operable side .... are these like old school fluorescent systems, that only require require the voltage to "light" the gas ?
Thanks

Jon M

jkpiitch, These cars are 20+ years old, expect the units to fail. I have had 1 failure in 140k miles. I would skip the junkyard as the units will probably be as old as the car. An igniter and a ballast will cost you about $60 of Amazon. Always replace them as a pair. Use the search function and you can find some others have purchased. Typically HID systems require about 25,000 volts to arc and about 90 volts to stay on. This varies by system and I personally never tried to measure the Acura. If you tried to splice the two sides to one igniter if will probably burn out the igniter as it tries to supply the voltage or it would just fail to light either of them.

DP01TL

I agree with Jon M, just pull the entire factory HID system and using the pigtails of the existing connectors graft in a modern HID system. They are CHEAP now in comparison.

Again, if done right, you won't EVER have to pull the bumper again. Personally I only did the side that was bad because I wanted to be sure it would be a long-term fix. In hindsight I should have just done the other side as well.

As long as it lasts through the winter I am in no rush. And if it does fail in winter, as long as other car projects are done, I will do the swap in the heated garage.

jkpiitch

Sounds pretty easy ... find a 2nd Gen TL compatible aftermarket kit, cut and splice some wires together as needed, gorilla tape the new igniter box somewhere out of the way. Any suggestions for an aftermarket brand ? It seems there are a bunch of them, maybe some are crap to avoid ? I saw Xenon conversion kits online that are so inexpensive, it made me wonder if they will hold up.

DP01TL

Honestly, Any 9006 kit works fine. You end up cutting the pigtails to wire it up off the existing parts, so be sure to cut enough length.

The only thing I may mention is the OEM seems to "brighten up" quicker after igniting. That would be the only difference I can notice between the OEM and aftermarket.