Driver side headlight went out. Not the bulb... swapped ballast and it fried. Pins were corroded by cleaning them didn't resolve it. Need to replace the unit.

If anyone has a lead on one at a decent price, please pm me.

Thank you.

 

Cheapest ones are around 120.
Kinda pricey .....

 

That is less than I saw at a quick glance before buttoning the car back up.

One thing that is worthy of noting.... It seems that the right and left ballast are coded to their actual position/side. I pulled the bad ballast from the driver's side (left) and popped it on the passenger (right). Predictably, the problem followed.... As the passenger side is far easier to access the ballast (you don't have to move the windshield wiper reservoir out of the way), I decided to leave it there for replacement.

I gave the car one last scan with STAR before heading out from the shop and just pulled a code that the left front ballast is still showing as the one that is faulty (despite now being on the right), also, an additional code saying that the installation side of the control unit has changed or is not recognized)

Dash indicates front right bulb is out. Very bizarre.

Does anyone know if I can/how to reprogram the ballast to the other side? I'd love to not have to relocate it again upon replacement. Additionally, it appears I will have to have the replacement coded to my car.

Last thing: It appears that in changing the side of the ballast, it causes the active turning side lighting to not function. I can actuate it in star but seems when I just turn the wheel it didn't activate. I'll report back if this is the case after driving the car home.

*fingers are crossed I can just reprogram these myself*

In case anyone is wondering, you DO NOT have to pull the front bumper to get to the ballasts. You go through the footwells. On the drivers side, remove the 3 bolts holding the windshield wiper reservoir in place and move it out of the way. It's tight, but you can get to the torx screws holding the ballasts to the underside of the headlight assemblies. While I did this work in a full blown professional shop, I should mention that all 4 lifts were occupied by vehicles that were in a greater state of disassembly than would have been prudent to attempt to move. I did this one the floor with a Snap On 2 ton floor jack, a headlamp, and a variety of typical sockets/1 torx. Prior to the swap, I was pulling a headlamp fault on circuit 15. Once I pulled out the ballast, the faulty one had a great deal of corrosion in the larger plug which I treated with electronics cleaner. I also noticed the smell of "no longer happy" electronics. It was a pretty big dead giveaway, however due to not having a lot of free time, I decided to be certain prior to ordering the replacement. I have a few other maintenance items I need to get to so I must maximize any wrenching/shop time I can manage.

 

oh wow , never thought it would be so complicated with ballasts , looks like on these cars everything will need to be coded, unlike my ex bmw 545 just replace it and it works. lol

and yes , thats how you also change a bulb by getting to it by wheel well liners.
to remove a bumper to change a bulb sounds funny. none of the auto makers should design it this way lol

yes i found that on ebay $119 it was with free shipping.

let us know how that goes

 

kudos to you for figuring out how to remove the ballast without dropping the bumper and pulling out the headlamp assembly. From troubleshooting my own headlight problem, the reading I did seemed to indicate that the ballasts were swappable between sides of the car without any programming. Perhaps the issue is that you don't have a working ballast on both sides yet. Hopefully getting a used one off ebay will do the trick and have you back up and running.

 

I called the stealership today to get a shop cost on a new unit. They asked "left or right" and also confirmed that they require coding.

For the sake of troubleshooting, they are swappable. (I swapped my passenger to the driver's side and vise versa. The bulb illuminates. You do not see any error codes on the dash and the bulb that is out will accurately display which side it is, HOWEVER, you get a code in star when you scan it. I'm not sure if the other side can simply be recoded to the other position or not or if it would increase the cost to have a dealer do it (in the event I can not figure out a way to do so with the clone star system I have).

It's just worth noting in the event someone pulls their car apart to test the ballast. I would suggest reinstalling in the original location before buttoning up the car as I did while waiting for the replacement.

Now that I've done it once, I will be much quicker in swapping them the second time around. I also will be sure to put the car on a lift as it will be much easier, quicker, and certainly more comfortable.

@thefisch, I actually read your posts a bit while taking a break from wrenching. I am pretty sure your ballast was all that was at fault. the symptoms are literally identical to what I experienced. In the end, I may end up pulling the bumper cover. If water somehow made it's way into the ballast once, it can happen again. I may pull the headlamp assembly and reseal the lens. The cost/my ability to determine coding potential is going to be the deciding factor. If I can code it, I'll probably role the dice. If I can't, I'll pull and reseal.

 

yeah, the stuff I was reading was about troubleshooting, no mention of checking STAR.

Seems like my problem was ages ago. I recall suspecting the ballast but the high beam was working and low beam would come on for less than a minute. Once the parts got over $100 and the effort involved removing my bumper, I was happy to pay my $250 deductible to get it done. Perhaps they could have replaced just the ballast but they would have made less on that