Hello Acurazine,

Car Details:
05 Acura TL with stock ballast
Morimoto 5000k 35w HID bulbs

I currently have an issue with my low beams turning off at any given moment. Sometimes it would range from 1 minute to 15 minutes. Basically the passenger side would turn off suddenly and I wouldn't be able to turn then back on until 10+ minutes. Sometimes, the driver side would turn off as well during freeway ramps or turns. To turn the lows back on, I would have to turn off all the car lights, then flip them back on.

I have searched and searched and have come up with a few suspects:

1) My buddy that works for an HID shop said they are my ballasts that are going out..because they are heating up so they turn off..then be able to turn back on after 10+ minutes after they've cooled down.
2) Could be my ignitors from what I have researched on this forum
3) Could be the aftermarket bulbs (2nd pair in the last 2 years)

I would buy new aftermarket ballasts but I don't want to downgrade quality since the OEMs are supposed to be quality parts. But if for a fact that it is my ballast that are giving me these issues, then does anyone have recommendations for quality ballast that would easily fit with the TL?

If I wanted to keep the OEM style, can I switch to the slim 07+ TL ballast? Would they fit in the stock location under the headlight with some slight modifications?

If anyone has ever experienced the same issue, please give me some tips on how to track the main problem.

Thanks!

 

06-08 ballasts are different, not sure how much modification it will take to fit but not worth the trouble just find some 04-05 ones. It's funny how they did the ballast change in 06 instead of 07

 

did you ever figure it out. i know its old tread

my 2007 TL has issues where both headlights going out at the same time 1min after turning on. And turning back on again with the switch. My low beams are leds, so i don't think both bulbs are bad, and i don't think both ballast and igniters going bad at the same time.

 

you put leds on ballasts…??

 

There are dedicated LEDs to work with ballast. I came across this solution one month ago and ordered the lowest lumens value available to see this invention. Have mounted them yesterday just to check how it works and it works fine 🤷

 

But why though? Your car has 12V DC voltage, you then add ballasts and igniters back to a 12V bulb? seems unnecessary

 

Off topic, but can you give a link to product like that?

Also, if you're already giving up on HIDs, reusing ballasts instead of bypassing them seems like extra steps and extra components that might fail.

Maybe the headlight switch? Mine seems weird sometimes, headlight flicker ON for a fraction of the second when I only want to switch from OFF to parking/marker lights, but it's doesn't bother me enough to investigate. But you would need to whip out at least a multimeter, some diagrams, and test, or load up parts cannon.

 

I mean wouldn't step #1 be to replace one of the LED bulbs with a regular HID bulb? It is quite suspicious that both bulbs go out at the same time. That would not be leading me to think ballast. It would lead me to think switch, grounds, or maybe the LEDs don't like the ballast.

 

Those are the questions I asked myself when came across this solution. Especially the LEDs should consume less than HIDs, and I imagine if they are going through the ballast they must consume the same 😎
The only advantage coming to my mind it is just plug'n'play solution, and you you don't have to wonder how to direct your additional 12v wires inside the headlights without letting in moisture.

I've brought this one.
They claim many many lumens but they are similar to hids (osram NBL next gen) actually.

 

So I finally got a chance to troubleshoot the low beams today, the oem ballast were getting 12v, I did notice that if I disconnected the bulb and turn on the headlights it would make a crackling noise. I then disconnected the driver side ballast, and no more noise, but the passenger side still shutoff. I had these leds on my oem ballast for 1-2months without issues. I also noticed that while the headlights turned off, within 1mins, it smelled like burnt electronics. both headlights. I suspect that both ignitors are going bad, since i could turn them back on again after a fews seconds of them being off, I dont have to time to order new ignitors, and I do have spare aftermarket ballast and ignitors on hand so that went that route. So far aftermarket works fine.