lowpost

So last week my driver side xenon started flickering. looked a little more purple than normal also.

1. I go to my mechanic and they replaced both drivers and passenger xenon bulbs. result: the driver's side is still purple and flickering. So my mech figures it wasn't the bulb and orders a new igniter, but meanwhile puts my old bulbs back in.
2. Old bulbs go back in and now the passenger side is purple and flickering. Divers side looks ok. OK so it's not the igniter(drivers side) and they switch the old bulbs when they reinstalled.
3. So now we say let's not mess with the Driver side bulb since it's working fine, let's just replace the passenger bulb. So they replace the old bulb with a new one and....it flickers.
4. So maybe it's a bad new bulb. We put another new bulb in....and it flickers but only on start up.

So that's is mystery #1.

Mystery #2 is that the passenger side xenon now has an odd pattern. I told the mech that it looks like it's not seated properly. They checked and said it was. I'm not sure but it looks like there's something "inside" blocking light, and the light is more diffused compared to the drivers side. Here's some pics. First pic looking straight down the car, 2nd on the driver's side, 3rd on the passenger side.

Anyone have any experience with this or seen this before? The other question is because the flickering moved from passenger to drivers side, even with 2 new bulb replacements is there an odd electrical issue going on?

My mech only works on Benz's and I trust them, but I'm thinking I may need to get this sorted out by a dealer.

degeja

went thru this-

finally replaced both ballasts- bought used ones on ebay

also realized had to hold the new bulbs in place with notch in correct place when engaging the springs and the power connector

probably wiped out a least one ballast by erroneolously replacing bulbs

megacrazy

Are you talking about stock HIDs or aftermarket? You could very well have both a bad ballast and a bad bulb. Also, I would replace both bulbs, otherwise they'll be different colors and the other "good" one is not too far behind in terms of failure.

From my experience I would say a bulb that flickers all the time = bad bulb. Bulb flickering on startup = bad ballast. Also, a bad ballast might not produce the same conditions every startup...it might flicker sometimes and sometimes it might be ok. I had a ballast that would flicker like crazy on startup when temperatures dropped.

As far as the beam pattern the bulb is not properly seated in the projector housing regardless of what they are saying.

degeja

initially the bulbs were dealer installed.
were flickering most of the time initially, then all the time

gaazmon

The original problem definitely sounds like a bad ballast (mine is also purple on my driver's side) and the bulbs were both replaced at the same time. Idk what would cause the later problems. It could be they triggered something else while changing. I know the bulb replacement on this car can be quite tricky with the OEM BiXenon setup.

lowpost

Stock hid. Today my mech tried to tell me the odd light pattern is caused by a blemish on my headlight. lol.

degeja

went thru this-
must get the bulb in the notch at the 12 o'clock position and
hold in place when twisting on the electrical connector-

the springs don't seem to always hold the bulb in place

otherwise get weird light pattern

lowpost

Yeah I hate messin with these bulbs cause a pain in the *** but I fixed it last night. Beam is fine.

degeja

Great- took me a while to understand the keys;

am using low cost bulbs that work as well as OEM-

hopefully will last for years

TechSuperstar

Question: Do the new bulbs look brighter than the old ones? My car's now a decade old with 180k mi on it and I swear my lights seem dim compared to other cars on the street. I'm considering changing them if possible.

degeja

yes, bulbs dim with age- that's why some people recommend changing both if one goes-

how much dimming?? dont know but my neighbors BMW is over 10 yrs old w/ original bulbs and they still look good.

TechSuperstar

That's the thing... it's hard to judge. They just don't exactly 'light up the road'. There is no what I call 'horizon line of light' on things anymore compared to driving my wife's newer MDX. When I pull up to cars beside me I can see the line of light out from their car but none from mine anymore. Mine just kind of illuminate stuff. I guess it's hard to describe. Does your neighbors car have 180k mi on it?

Anyway, I thought it was $$$ after talking to the dealer but I found the pair of D2S on autohausaz for $115. I was looking on amazon but it looks like there's a ton of fake branded ones out there.

Is it hard to put these in? I mean, is it easier to just take the 3 bolts out of the assy and bring it inside the house to put them in or is it easy to reach around in there?

degeja

Bought cheap ones on ebay- wanted lighter hoter color-
2005 like mine are easy- but hard to get the technique.

Blk550Eric

Hello. I am experiencing the same thing. I already replaced the lamp to no avail. Now I want to swap the ballasts to confirm the problem. Can anyone point me to where the ballasts are located? I would appreciate if anyone could provide an image or diagram to the location of the ballast? Thank you in advance. E

NewShockerGuy

The ballast is located on the bottom of the headlight. Held by three torx screws (t20 or t25 I think).


HID bulbs most definitely dim as they age. Most bulbs are rated for around 2,500-30,00 hours and will start to color shift at about 100/200 hours. After that they will begin to gradually lose lumens. It's gradual just like LEDS given enough time you will get used to the loss of lumens short of having one bulb being brand new and comparing both you really won't notice it until it get to the point that you say wow these seem dim, at which point you should have already changed the bulbs..lol. If your bulbs are ten years old then yes, definitely change them, because you are at least half of the lumens you should be at. I replace HID bulbs about 4-5 years. I do this only because I don't want to be stuck some where with one headlight. I've yet to have a bulb ever burn out because I just don't keep them long enough. I HAVE however had bulbs on their way out. You can tell this when you see a car driving up and one headlight looks white, while the other one might be pinkish...


Also keep in mind that our projectors are e55 bi-xenons (most are old)... the bowls on a LOT of them are probably burned meaning you will have less light as well. This can be avoided by not using cheap ebay bulbs that so many go to. Get a quality OEM bulb Philips/Osram and you are good. I can't stress that enough to stay away from ****ty eBay bulbs. They are not quality and will produce way more UV light (which will damage the projector bowl and your headlight) than a factory oem bulb.


Hope that helps.


-Nigel

TechSuperstar

Thanks Nigel... Before ordering I decided to take one out to check the model.. Come to find out they're d1s bulbs with the metal square on the back not d2s which every website states I have, even the Philips site(good thing I checked). Now the question is are all d1s bulbs the same in terms of the connection? The current part is: Philips 9285 139 294.. There are some on Amazon with part 9285 141 294. Is that the same just different color?

TechSuperstar

The amazon part worked like a charm.. easy install. Lights are brighter now. Using "Physics toolbox suite" app on my phone I was able to tell the old 10yr xenon bulbs were putting out around 5000 lumens @ 4ft away while the new bulbs were putting out 15,000 lumens. For anyone still using original bulbs in their 10yr old car... its time to replace them.

megacrazy

Huh a xenon bulb puts out about 3000 lumens, probably less. 15000 lumens that's like you had 5 bulbs in there.

Anyway you can still run a comparison between the old and new bulbs (5 vs 15) but the units are definitely off. And yes, I would swap these out every couple of years...they do get noticeably dimmer after a while. They're also cheap enough nowadays.

TechSuperstar

Thanks for correcting.. I just looked again and it's actually lux not lumens. I'm not exactly sure how the app can figure that out cause isn't lux over an area? Not sure how a phone camera can figure that out. Oh well. Let's just say the news ones were 3x brighter.