Hi Acurazine community,

As of the past few months, I have become a proud owner of an Acura TL '04 and loving it! Only real problem that has come up is my driver side HID bulb is out. No warning signs or anything, just dead. Passenger side works still. My question is, is it the actual bulb itself, or the ballast that would need replacing?

 

you would need to trouble shoot; by switching the problem bulb to the other side.

if problem follows bulb, bulb is the problem.
if bulb works on the other side, it might be the ballast.

 

That is a good point. Thank you for your response! I will have to try that once it's not 20 degrees out here...

 

My next thought is what is the best approach to gain access to the passenger side HID bulb?

 

Like the driver bulb. Remove the bumper.

Some people mess around through the wheel well to do that stuff, I find that's more trouble than anything. The good way is to take off the bumper, a 10 minutes job once you're used to it. First time takes around 30 at best.

 

Is it seriously that quick? It seems like it would be so much more of a hassle.

 

its more of a hassle to fit your hand up the wheel well.

once you do the bumper once, you learn how to do it pretty fast

 

Great, I can handle that.
Once it hits 30 degrees at least here, I'll be out there taking off my bumper. I'll report back with my findings asap!

 

I finally was able to take my bumper off yesterday/this morning. Results are that both bulbs are perfectly fine. Took both headlight units and tried them on each side with both bulbs, swapped HID ballasts, but the driver side will not work. I am pretty convinced it is the bulb igniter. The passenger side igniter looks cleaner I noticed. Like the center of it looks clean where as the right looks actually bubbled a bit like burnt. I am hoping and thinking this is the issue.

Before I start buying parts, I would appreciate feedback. Thoughts?

 

If you're convinced it's the ignitor, have you tried to switch THAT to the passenger side to confirm?

Don't swap more than one part at a time, that wouldn't do much for troubleshooting purposes.

1. Swap bulbs, check.
2. Swap ignitors, check.
3. Swap ballasts (control unit), check.

 

I did realize that when I put everything back together. I will have to give that a shot then hopefully soon here.
Reporting back soon!

 

Good news! I was able to investigate again and found out that the driver side HID Bulb Socket is bad.
Only thing to do now is to purchase a replacement. Anyone have any recommendations of where to buy one?

 

Not sure what that means.. bulb socket. You mean the ignitor perhaps?
IGNITER, HID | Genuine Acura | 33129-S2A-J01

 

Yep, you got it haha.

Just without the HID unit.