I KOMPRZ

I had both sides replaced once at different time about a yr ago. No problems after but yeah, you were not alone. I remember asking those ignitor cost $400 a piece.

Turbo2

Glad to hear I'm not alone! Let's just hope these ignitors don't decide to fail once 50K/4yrs is up.

My friend who bought eBay xenons has had his on his e36 for approximately 3 years and not a single problem. Who makes MB's ignitors, Bosch?

razorfish228

You guys might as well get aftermarket ones when your warranty expires. I thought Hella makes the ballasts for MB.

YoYiTo

I purchased my european mb bi-xenon from ebay about a year ago. No problem with them.

Like razorfish228 said. If your warraty is over your might as well go aftermarket. Save you money and headaches.

mctwin2kman

Factory Bi-X's on my 2003 Coupe and have had the car since 1/2003! Has 45,000 on it now and never had an issue with the Bi-X headlights or the ignitors.

Turbo2

Lucky you!

mick1

The bi-xenon headlight on the passenger's side of my car was doing that a few days ago too. It would go off and on continously. However, tonight it no longer did that. It seems to be fine now. My car has about 17k miles.

white_w203

i had this problem with the passenger side where the lights were flickering. this was a couple of month ago and it hasn't happened since. still planning to take it to the dealer still.

mctwin2kman

It is funny that mine was one of the first to have them in the US. Even funnier is that the newer ones are not as good it seems. MB Cutting costs!!! lol

Turbo2

Funny for you, not for me! But yes, it is another indication of MB cost-cutting.

Want to trade you Xenons for my new (and improved; HA) '05 Bi-Xenons?

Sauceboy01

Well, i intalled my bi-xenons after i bought the car and I haven't gotten down to changing the ECU setting to Bi-Xenon yet, so my lights do flicker as well.. But when i turn the lights and fogs on before i actually start the car the flickering goes away completely. (something to do w/ an electrical check surge or something along those lines.) Try that guys! see if it works.. let me know!

Turbo2

My Bi-Xenon's were factory installed, that's why I'm so pissed.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

mctwin2kman

Uhmmmm!!













































No!

Turbo2

Dam*it! Nothing beats a failure like a try, right?

MBZFAN55

I had the same problem on the left side of my S500. It turned out to be a "loose connection", which sounds similar to many posts in this thread. My situation also developed around 22,000 miles on the odometer.

mctwin2kman

I hate to say this but I would bet your S class is built with a tad better parts than a C Class!

coin

Hi all,

I have my passenger side bi-xenon igniter for sale. I just had an accident in which I decided to replace the whole headlight
The igniter is from Euro-version bi-xenon that I bought from Steve Mbenzl...

For all of you who need to change the igniter and would like to have OEM part, just PM me or email at northvivor@yahoo.com ...

As I KOMPRZ has mentioned, it should cost $400/piece from the stealership... I am not looking for that high of a price...

Thanks

rubenl

I had this issue with our 05 C230SS rt side light, dealer replaced the igniter...problem returned as I was driving home...they then replaced the whole light assembly...so far ok...

ggong5150

I have 61,000 miles on my car and up til a couple of weeks ago had no problems at all. Then the passenger side light goes out and I thought it was the bulb, so I change the bulb and it still doesn't work. I take it to the dealership and they tell me it was the ignitor and thanks to my purchase of extended warranty when I bought my car, they replaced the whole bi-xenon unit which was $1492, then labor was another $500, so they charged the insurance company who honors my extended warranty $1992, and I just paid a $100 deductible.

benzo-boi

okay, I'm reviving this thread. Started to notice my driver-side bi-xenons flickering. After searching the threads, I'm kinda scared on bringing it to the dealer for servicing. It doesn't flicker that violently or often, but often enough to bother me......but I'm skeptical to bring it in because I saw several horror threads about the xenon lights having a shadow after it was fixed and also the dealer mis-aiming the xenons...etc..

Are there any successful stories of flickering xenon lights and repairs? Are they mostly just the igniters?

kk249

for those of you have flick problems, have you guys ever change the original bulbs and using other brands bulbs? I have heard that some cheap bulbs (also D2S) don't match very good with power supply unit!

Turbo2

I've had both my igniters replaced, driver and passenger side and I'm about to have my driver's side replaced again next week when my car goes in for Service B.

The driver's side has gotten so bad that sometimes it doesn't even flicker, just shuts off completely for 1-2 seconds.

There is definitely a problem with the igniters MB is using.

mick1

my bi-xenon problem went away by itself. 3000 more miles and no flickering . Weird.

nlpamg

my entire drivers side assembly was replaced in february... now it's flickering (pretty badly at that).

patrick_y

Yikes, I have factory bixenons too.

One thing to pay attention about is to make sure that you're not turning the light on and off repetitively. Keep in mind, lights don't like to be turned on and off.

Think of it this way; HID lights (bi xenons are HIDs) are like flourescent lights and halogens are similiar to incandescent lights.

Flourescent lights take a lot of energy to start up and you shouldn't turn them on and off repetitively.

Incandescent lights don't require large amounts of energy to start up and you still shouldn't turn them on and off repetitively but it doesn't damage an incandescent bulb as much as a flourescent bulb if you do.