Replaced ballast and headlight, design flaw

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Old Mar 22, 2007 | 05:22 PM
  #1  
probmxstyle's Avatar
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Burning Brakes
 
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Replaced ballast and headlight, design flaw

Today I got my new ballast and headlight in from Acura Carland. If you read my previous thread you'll see that water had gotten into my ballast from condensation in my headlight. Well I am guessing Acura figured there was a design flaw in the ballast because on the new one there is now a rubber seal around the white plug to seal the gap. Below is a pic of the old ballast with no seal showing where water can drip right in. If your old ballast's havent gone yet, you might want to pull them out and throw a bead of silicon around the plug to seal up the gap.

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Old Mar 22, 2007 | 06:31 PM
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laidback93's Avatar
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hmm, good to know!
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Old Mar 23, 2007 | 12:10 PM
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Yea, I don't know what Honda was thinking. Having an opening to the ballast when it is mounted at the bottom of the light housing will easily allow internal condensation to pool down there by gravity.

I was thinking about sealing it up too but never did because I thought it might have been designed as a heat vent to keep the electronics cool.

You don't have pics of the new ballast, do you?
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Old Mar 23, 2007 | 03:41 PM
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probmxstyle's Avatar
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Originally Posted by mr.motoring
Yea, I don't know what Honda was thinking. Having an opening to the ballast when it is mounted at the bottom of the light housing will easily allow internal condensation to pool down there by gravity.

I was thinking about sealing it up too but never did because I thought it might have been designed as a heat vent to keep the electronics cool.

You don't have pics of the new ballast, do you?

Unfortunatly I do not. But I can tell you that the new ballast is completely sealed so some silicon wont hurt at all.
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Old Apr 4, 2007 | 01:38 PM
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I ended up doing this last night while fixing my passenger side light.
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Old Apr 4, 2007 | 02:10 PM
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The ballast on my car was replaced last year when the driver's side lowbeam stopped working...they showed it to me and it had some rust on the outside and it smelled burnt. The part was listed as a Control Unit, part #33119-S0K-A10 and was expensive.
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Old May 29, 2007 | 04:59 PM
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Someone posted a while back about using some kind of foam washer from the hardware store where the ballast meets the headlight. I'm trying to find it now, but if anyone else knows what I'm referring to, could you please post a link?
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Old May 30, 2007 | 08:58 AM
  #8  
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Originally Posted by pistacio
Someone posted a while back about using some kind of foam washer from the hardware store where the ballast meets the headlight. I'm trying to find it now, but if anyone else knows what I'm referring to, could you please post a link?
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Old May 30, 2007 | 09:29 AM
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I Found The Thread Last Night, But No Specific Details. I Guess The Stock Washer Is Not Meant To Be Re-used, Therefore Causing Condensation And Leakage Into The Ballast. The Thread Says To Just Measure The Old Washer And Replace It With A New Rubber Piece With The Same Dimensions.....i'll Be Trying It This Weekend (hopefully) And Will Post My Results With What I Ended Up Doing/using.

Sorry If This Post Is In Caps Lock....stupid Phone!
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Old May 31, 2007 | 10:31 AM
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i changed 2 ballast and didnt come with rubber(washer?).
do i need rubber for the ballast??
it goes around the blue circle.
does dealer have good 1 ? bc last time, JnC sent me rubber but it was bigger than the 1 that i had before.

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Old May 31, 2007 | 01:14 PM
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I'm not sure if the dealer sells just the washer....but it will probably be over-priced anyway. Something of the same material from the hardware store should work. I'm going to try taking the headlights off today and matching up the washers at the store.
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Old May 31, 2007 | 03:01 PM
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just got them from dealer.
only $9 for both.
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