NardoNZ

hey guys, hopefully you can give me a clear answer on this:

my right hand headlight intermittantly turns on or not. usually when the car is cold there is nothing, only left side but when the engine is warm, and I restart the motor the light comes on. Took it into the dealership and they swapped the bulbs and control units over to rule out whats failing but both times the right hand light stayed off. Now they say that there is another igniter in the headlight that fails, because when they swapped the complete units the fault actually moved to the left side!! so is there another igniter IN the headlamp unit that cannot be replaced seperately?

please help!

Glyn M Ruck

See the Wiki. Yes there is an ignitor in the headlamp assembly that fails.

https://mbworld.org/wiki/index.php/F...acement-1-.pdf

EDIT: Note that the repair kit allows repair without disassembly of the headlamp.

fusionnrg

i sometimes still have the issue of my passenger side xenon turning on 10 to 20 seconds after the driver side. i swapped out bulbs, replaced ballast too.

i noticed over the weekend that my driver side beam looks to point a sharp beam and the driver side xenon spreads out the light.

any ideas anyone?!?!?

Glyn M Ruck

All that can cause differing light pattern is the Xenon lamp base not properly located in the housing or a rebased Chinese lamp that has the base attached incorrectly. Very worn lamps will also take the arc out of focus but this usually shows itself as a shift to the blue end of the light spectrum.

Starting delay in striking the arc is usually a lazy ignitor.

See Wiki here for ignitor replacement

https://mbworld.org/wiki/index.php/F...acement-1-.pdf

ferrariyellow44

Usually flickering and then re-igniting is caused by the ballast not correctly maintaining the voltage. Try swapping the ballasts from one side to the other

Glyn M Ruck

BTW - Replacement ignitor kit part number is A203 820 11 12 05

fusionnrg

i appreciate your help and the suggestions. what do you guys think of aftermarket ballast?

Moedy

Get a used ballast off ebay rather than some aftermarket one but make sure its the ballast first. The dealer wants some ridiculous price just for a ballast, around $450. You can get one off ebay for around $100. The passenger side is easy to get to without removing the bumper