[ryan stewart]

So a couple of weeks ago drivers side my angel eye didnt light up for a couple of days. I ordered a replacement bulb but by the time it arrived it came back on and has been on since, so just stashed the bulb for later.

But last night when I went to leave at night (first time the lights would have come on automatically that day) I got a light error and drivers side headlight would not come on. Oh well, need a bulb right. Drove home.

For funsies when i got home I flipped the lights off and back on to see what would happen and I could see a faint flicker of the light trying to turn on but then going off, passenger continued to work.

Then this morning when pulling my car in for the fuel issue tried again, neither work. No zero effort from the drivers and the passenger is doing the faint flicker before dying.

Pulled codes and the FRM had a bunch but a lot were red herrings methinks. turn signal bulb errors, the angel eye error, a front interior light (sunroof panel) error, and the headlight errors. But honestly I cant recall the last time I pulled codes and I know I had to replace the rear taillight housing when the bulb holder kind of just disintegrated, let a bulb fall down and melt a lot of shit. I had to disconnect the light panel up in the front to work on the sunroof, etc.

Cleared the errors and cycled all of the errored lights. Turn signals work, marker lights work, interior lights work, just no headlights. And now rerunning codes JUST the headlight.

Soooo, just run to autozone to grab a D1S and see if its hopefully just the odd luck of both lights going out within 24 hours of each other or is there another step to diagnose a dying footwell module?

[drawz]

Check the wiring inside the headlight. The insulation may be crumbling and causing an intermittent short.

[ryan stewart]

Originally Posted by drawz

Check the wiring inside the headlight. The insulation may be crumbling and causing an intermittent short.

I see some hairline cracks in the insulation but its still on the wire. I also moved the wires around a bit to see if there was any touching

Went and got a new bulb and I can see it spark when its firing up but then it gives up and doesnt light. Does that NOT mean the FRM is toast? Still odd its BOTH lights at once.

[Cal122]

Originally Posted by ryan stewart

Went and got a new bulb and I can see it spark when its firing up but then it gives up and doesnt light.

Is this happening on both headlights with the new replacement bulb, or just one side? Sounds more like a wire (any breaks on the wiring harness running along the fender?) or ballast issue to me than FRM. When my FRM3 went out I had tons of codes and none of the failed lights even tried to turn on, although others have mentioned different experiences depending on the failure type.

[ryan stewart]

Ok so I can see it cycle between bulbs trying ot turn them on. They flicker left, then right, then left, then right, then left, then right. Then it gives up and gives the error.

This is with a new bulb in one of them. Ive pulled the plug from the headlight and the two grounds are giving zero resistances.

Using protools checked the FRM and its not showing any short circuits and I did the counter reset in it a few times but nothing has changed.

Nothing else in the FRM is showing any errors so its not like the FRM is completely dead. And everything else works, I can even trigger stuff using protools.

So Im at a loss as to why it cant get my HID bulbs running, I can see it making attempts to start them.

[ryan stewart]

Originally Posted by Cal122

Is this happening on both headlights with the new replacement bulb, or just one side? Sounds more like a wire (any breaks on the wiring harness running along the fender?) or ballast issue to me than FRM. When my FRM3 went out I had tons of codes and none of the failed lights even tried to turn on, although others have mentioned different experiences depending on the failure type.

Still with just one bulb. I swap it back and forth and it happens on both sides. I also tried unplugging one housing and just doing the other just in case it was a short.

In both scenarios it attempts to start the bulb 3 times (I can see it arcing in the bulb) and then throws the bulb error.

But yeah, the FRM is ONLY showing the bulb codes (both, one for each side) but EVERYTHING else is perfectly happy except it looks like high beams wont turn on. Dont know if thats a fallback of some sort with the lows off. Using protools app on my phone I can trigger the shutter for the bi-xenon, etc.

But angel eyes, parking lights, etc all working. And I can see each light TRYING to start, just wont start. This is including the fresh bulb.

[ryan stewart]

Im really trying to rack my brain to the cause of the common fault. I might just spring for another bulb and check it out. I did find one thread where a guy had basically the same result (one light goes out, then the next day the other) and two bulbs fixed it. I just dont get it though since its two ballasts unless something about the computer is just like "well, something isnt right shut it all down" which sounds like a bad idea.

[ryan stewart]

Ok so a new fuse and a full battery charge (car isnt running at the moment because the fuel filter started leaking same damn day and UPS doesnt understand what people mean by "next day air")

Also got some amazon ballasts coming just to test these to see if anything changes. Otherwise Im out of ideas.

[ryan stewart]

One step forward, amazon ballast fires up. Guess both ballasts decided to shit the bed within a day of each other...


That little victory comes with a price through, I don't see a way to get to the last screw holding the ballast with the headlight in the car, looks like the frame that holds the headlight is in the way, so bumper off time to work on the headlights out of the car.

So now a followup, anyone had experiences replacing stock bixenon adaptive lights with aftermarket? Even OEM youre looking at $900 each.

The wiring in there is losing its insulation. Since Im pulling the light I could get in there with some liquid electrical tape to cover them (the wires themselves look stellar, just the insulation) but wondering whats the next thing to go on them...

[ryan stewart]

Did the liquid electrical tape route, other than the wires to the ballast itself the inside of the lights all looked pretty good. Some minor cracking on the grounds (thicker wire) to the other lights. I put 3 layers of liquid electrical tape (even found color coded stuff).

Ballasts in, mounted lights with covers off, gonna let that stuff cure another 30 minutes and we shall see.

[ryan stewart]

I know Ive been talking to myself here but just to close the loop in case someone runs into something similar: It was the ballasts. Both ballasts somehow went out within like 12 hours of each other. I mean, thye had the same number of starts, same hours, etc. Just surprised to see them fail THAT close to each other.

An $80 set of Amazon ballasts and my lights are working again. I might turn around and get some better ones later but went ahead and buttoned the car back up again so I can have a car to drive after it being offline for a week. Dunno, might just ride these bitches till failure to see how long these no-name ones last.

[drawz]

Thanks for the follow up! Glad you figured it out!