UA6-MT

My left headlight always goes out after a brief moment of working. The bulb is pretty new. I replaced the ballast and still won't work. Actually flickers now before going out. With the old ballast it would go out like a switch. Any suggestions what it could be? Thanks.

thoiboi

OEM ballast or?

UA6-MT

Yes, oem. And the newer 06 ballast looks to be in much better shape than the 05 one I took out but the headlight actually goes out sooner now and it'll flicker before shutting off

thoiboi

Did you replace the igniter as well?

UA6-MT

Just the ballast.

thoiboi

Replace the igniter

UA6-MT

I just replaced the ignitor. The light is still going out.

thoiboi

Any chance you got a bad ballast? is it new or used?

UA6-MT

It's possible but very unlikely. Assuming the bulb, ballast, and ignitor is good; what else is there to check?

UA6-MT

Used but a known working one

Jackass

Bad ground?

JMiles_T

Can you swap the ballasts on each side of the vehicle? If the other side starts going out, you'll have narrowed down which is the problem part.

UA6-MT

I just tried swapping ballasts and low and behold.. the same driver side headlight goes out even with the passenger side ballast that has always worked. I'm out of ideas. I really don't want to spend money but I'm about to let the pros look at it.

UA6-MT

I just swapped ballasts. The same side headlight is still failing.

thoiboi

Did you swap ignitors too?

UA6-MT

Yes

thoiboi

Then it sounds like it may be issues with the wiring on the side of the car. Or a bad ground that was alluded to earlier. Was this car in a front end accident by chance? This is where things get tricky if it isn't as simple as the ballast/bulb/ignitor.

UA6-MT

I must've taken the bumper and headlights apart 4 times in the past week and half. Swapping ignitors, replacing ballasts, swapping ballasts. I'm getting tired of it. I miss my '95 civic cx. I think I need to go buy it back.

UA6-MT

I'm thinking a bad ground now. Hopefully the tech can find it and doesn't have to rip the car apart. It's funny though that you mentioned front end accident because it was in a slow 5-10 mph crash where the only damage was a gash to the bumper but it was closer to the other side and was about 3 years ago.

UA6-MT

Could anyone show me where the headlights ground to? Or if someone with a manual can post a diagram, that would be awesome. 😎

thoiboi

Follow the wires They'll be grounded to some part of the body near the headlights

UA6-MT

The ground near the headlights seem fine. I wanted to know where the other grounds are. The ones that may affect the headlight wiring

UA6-MT

Got the car back from the tech. The problem was the actual bulb. Sometimes itll work a good 20 minutes or so but the problem renains the bulb for why it's going out. I never woulda thought because of how it seemed to work fine when it was on. Thanks for the help, guys. Gonna go replace that bulb now.