Hello all, I just picked up my (new-to-me) 2001 Acura TL tonight. One of the stipulations when buying it was that I had to fix the driver's side headlight (helped knock the price down). It's a bit odd as I'm not sure what the problem is exactly. The passenger side headlight is the standard HID - nice and white. The driver's side however is yellow - like a halogen. It's not yellow like a 3000k foglight bulb or anything, it is definitely yellow/dim like a standard halogen light. I am assuming the previous owner had a bulb burn out (somehow) and replaced it, but is it even possible to replace it with a halogen bulb? If not, what other causes could there be for this? Poor ground? Would replacing the pair of bulbs fix the problem maybe? Any insight is appreciated - Thanks for your time.

 

Took a couple quick (poor quality) shots. I apologize for the quality as I didn't have a tripod set up. It's hard to get a good feel for what they look like because of the glare, but you can get an idea.

 

Yup as you said man, i mean you can definately tell that the driver side isnt hid, i mean might be the owner who sold you this car burnt the hid or the ballast or take them away to resell it lol.
If your familiar with taking off the bumper, and those housin lights, you could definately check and see if the ballasts are stil there. If they still there, switch the bulb to see if the ballast isnt fried, and if they work perfectly then all you need is a new oem hid bulb or a after market bulb
Anyway the bulb type is HID-D2R.

 

You'll only know what you have to fix by looking to see what is actually there. Either the ballast or ignitor went out and they cheaped out by just putting in a regular halogen bulb instead of fixing what needed to be.

 

Is it possible to fit a regular halogen bulb into the D2R socket, if the ballast/igniter went out? I was under the impression they used different sockets altogether but I could be incorrect. Hopefully tomorrow night I will get a chance to take a look and see what kind of bulb is in there. I am hoping it's just a halogen bulb that needs to be switched to a D2R. Worst case scenario I guess is that the ballast/igniter is fried and I could pick up an aftermarket HID kit. Any other suggestions?

 

Also, to test the bulbs is it possible to take the D2R out of the passenger side, put it in the driver's side and turn the lights on (with no bulb in the pass. side) to check and see if the bulb is okay - without any damage coming from not having a bulb in the pass. side during the test? I figure that might be an easy way to check and see if the ballast/igniter is toast.

 

^^ You can certainly do that, that's what I did to test to see if my driver's side ballast had died (which it had). It won't hurt anything. That's the weirdest thing I've seen with regards to lights on here...keep us posted, I'm intrigued.

 

Excellent haha, glad to see I have at least an interesting first thread. I checked on eBay and it looks like there are some OEM ballasts/ignitors for sale for the 99-01 TL so I could maybe snag one of those if mine is bad.

 

Okay so I did a bit more investigating tonight after work. I pulled the battery out, moved the coolant reservoir, and took that little vent elbow off so I could get access to the back of the d. side headlight. The first thing I noticed were wire splices on the two wires coming off the bulb. Not a good sign. I pop the cover off the back of where the bulb is mounted and pop the bulb out. Definitely not a D2R but actually a 9005 halogen! I am guessing someone brought the car to a bubba mechanic to 'fix the broken headlight' and this was their (not so bright...literally) solution. There was no sign of a ballast or ignitor. I checked the p. side quickly (what a pain) and it definitely had the ballast and ignitor behind the cover. Luckily they didn't splice into the actual wiring harness but just the bulb wiring itself. It looks like I am going to need one ballast/ignitor setup for the d. side and bulb at the very least. Would I be better off picking up oem stuff via ebay or should I just get an aftermarket 4500/5000k kit to replace it all? I have pics I will post later...I am posting from my cell right now.

 

Okay I got a chance to upload the photos I took. My main question is... should I bother getting a (used) OEM ballast/ignitor via eBay and then buying a pair of bulbs... or should I just get an aftermarket kit and replace both sides? On to the pictures...

The first thing I see... hmm this isn't good.



Digging deeper and deeper...





High beam... this looks fine as far as I can tell.



But yet what is this?



Hmm this sure doesn't look like a D2R HID bulb..



Oh that's right... it's a 9005! How stupid, I should have known.



This is the passenger's side with the correct parts..





One other question - is the ballast part (the cylindrical part I believe it is) attached to the actual bulb, or does it just sit against it? My passenger side one was pretty crammed in there so it was hard to tell. Thank you

 

Keeping my own thread alive here, but if I were to buy this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/99-00...=p4506.c0.m245

Would I just need a (pair) of bulb(s) to go along with it and be all set? It looks like the ignitor/ballast from eBay has a female connection on it... I think the bulb part that I unplugged yesterday had a male end, so exactly how does it get hooked up? This stuff gets confusing.

 

Any advice as to what I should go with? Buy used OEM ballast/ignitor and buy a set of bulbs... or just buy a complete aftermarket kit including everything? With an aftermarket kit, would I have to splice the wiring in order to hook up the ballasts, etc.?

 

Since it was quite cheap, I simply went with an ebay d2r hid kit for 110 bucks shipped. I ordered it with 6K bulbs and have had 0 problems so far. The only part that wasn't simple was the install, simply because I had to cut off the stock plug that gives the ballast power and couple the wires to the aftermarket ballast's wires. I decided to leave the stock ballast in place to keep the headlight sealed underneath, so I had to drill a hole in the back of the bulb's casing to run the wires. I used a grommet to shrink the hole and then sealed it all up. It's not the prettiest setup, but it's all hidden under that plastic part and it all works fantastic. I just hope it holds up in the freezing cold temps up here.

 

Been cleaned...nice and dirty there

 

Thanks for the tip. I will probably end up getting an aftermarket kit to replace the OEM stuff unless I can find a really good deal on an OEM set. Very tight quarters in there to work in - To access the ballast do you have to take the headlight out? Which also involves removing the bumper... correct? Should make for a fun weekend (on top of having to install a new bath tub/shower at our place )

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like the passenger side ballast isn't the OEM? I do have to wonder what happened to this vehicle...

 

I had to remove my front bumper (don't worry it's incredibly easy), and then I did remove the headlight to gain easier access to everything (also easy). Since headlight condensation is a common problem for our tl's there's been many diy threads on how to fix the headlight and install new ballasts (usually for fogs).

It's damn near impossible to find a stock ballast on ebay, and the dealer charges waaaay too much for it to be worth it. The aftermarket kits are so common and work just as well that it's the best way to go.

 

The picture of the passenger side has the ignitor and it is the OEM one - I have looked online and found OEM ignitors for sale on eBay and they are the same as mine. The ballast is underneath the headlight and I wasn't able to get a picture of it. Carfax was clean so it didn't have any accidents or anything like that.

I actually found a passenger side headlight (complete) for sale on eBay that I bought... it includes the bulb/ballast/ignitor as well, so I plan on taking the HID components off of that headlight and swapping them onto the driver's side. I'm not sure if the ballast mounting will be the same but if not I can figure something out. Either way they are OEM components so it *should* just be a plug-and-play deal. The seller says it is in perfect working condition. Anyone need a pass. side headlight? haha

 

you should keep the headlight, so u can practice the "clearing out the headlight" DIY... it makes our cars look 10x better.

 

Yeah it looks good but I'll probably end up just selling it. I've cleared headlights on a couple of my previous cars (WRX, STi) and it wasn't bad (bake, open, etc.) but I plan on leaving the TL alone for the most part as it's just my daily driver.