Naturally, after getting my car back on the road this past week (after the ball joint fiasco), I took the car on a road trip to a cabin/state park. It sat parked on a pretty steep hill for a few days while we were out there with some decent rain.

On the way back home, I noticed one of my headlights was out. Guessing it might be the ballast or ignitor, because the bulb appeared strong as ever before randomly quitting. (no discoloration, fading, flicker, etc). Just happened to quit the other day. Additionally, for the first time ever I noticed condensation inside of the housing. I'm guessing this is all related, but either way, I'll stop rambling about that.

Is there any way to swap ballasts easily on this car without dropping the bumper? I'm guessing not, but I'd hate to do everything only to confirm that indeed only the ballast was bad and essentially do the same job twice while I wait for parts. (I can be convinced otherwise though). I'm curious if there's any better way to test my suspicion.

Additionally, if the housing is compromised, I'm wondering what the best option moving forward is financially. I'd *assume* a junkyard housing and ballast would be the move. Not sure what the aftermarket scene is looking like these days. And new OEM is a pretty penny, but I'm not totally opposed to that either. Idk. Just looking for some thoughts and experience from you guys.

Thanks

 

^
Here is an example of what the vendor claims as 'Factory OEM'.

NEW Factory OEM 2006-2008 Acura TL Xenon Headlight Ballast 33119-SEP-H01 | eBay

Not sure if it is, though, it looks reasonably priced for a pinch like this, if in fact your ballast has given up the ghost.
Car-part.com has quite a few 'headlight assembly' in Ohio, BTW. Many in your city of Columbus.

 

Just went through this.

Dropping the bumper isn't that bad, especially if you go in with push pin pliers. Block out a few hours for diagnosis, drop the bumper and swap the ballasts. While you're there, do the continuity checks described in the service manual, just in case. However, if the housing has condensation, the butyl seal is likely shot, and that moisture intrusion may have wicked down the igniter wiring and murdered the ballast.

In my case, one side stopped working without going through the pink-eye phase first. I suspected the igniter and went in after it. But when I got a look at the ballast, it was obviously corroded, and it reeked of electrolytic fluid. In the process, I also discovered the headlight housing was practically sucking up water into its interior. So I called it a day and put it back together.

I went on eBay and bought a complete headlight housing (about $120) and ballast ($40) off junkyard sellers, making sure to pick a housing that wasn't excessively oxidized and a ballast that wasn't rusty. Then I polished it up, installed PPF on the lens, threw in new bulbs, dropped the bumper again and bolted it up. Dropping the bumper a second time sounds awful, but it goes much faster if you've done it recently.

 

Hey, thanks. After further exploring the condensation issue, I feel that replacing the entire assembly is the best move. Really the only thing I would be salvaging is the bulb and maybe the ignitor otherwise.

Thanks for the reply. I found a complete assembly (with the bulb, ignitor, and ballast) from a private ebay seller for $155 to my door, from california. It looks to be in great condition. While I wait, I probably can take off the bumper now, and mess around with testing the components. I fortunately work from home and hardly drive anywhere, so hopefully I can get away with a single bumper drop.

 

I had condensation in my headlight, which fried my ballast+igniter. I replaced the ballast and baked my headlight to put new sealant on it. Put dielectric grease on the ballast ground point. Still had condensation after all that, although much less. Probably should've gone your route and replaced everything.

 

Oof, lol. I haven't baked a headlight in forever but yeah, hopefully this will be plug-and-play.