I have a second-hand '06 R53, and a few days ago, my right/passenger headlight started turning pink, which I assumed meant the bulb was going out.

As of yesterday, the light was totally out, but upon starting the car, it does briefly and weakly flash.

So I bought a headlight at AutoZone, but when I went to install, found that I had the Xenons.

Then I found out how expensive they were.

To make 100 precent sure that it was indeed the bulb ONLY and not the electrical stuff (ballast?), I decided to try take the one out of the driver headlight to try it in the right.

When I got into the driver headlight, I found that it was hooked up entirely differently and didn't want to try disconnecting it. (see photos, silver setup and bulb are from driver side)

So, before I spend $100 on a Xenon bulb, I have these questions:

1) How does one disconnect the bulb from the left headlight setup?

2) Is there another way to verify that the ballast is OK on the right side and that there is nothing wrong other than the bulb?

3) Finally, how much trouble/cost would it be to switch both headlights back to halogens?






Bulb from driver side headlight





The reverse of the bulb setup from other picture





The set up on passenger side after extracting the bulb and replacing it empty

 

Xenons turn a pinkish hue when they are starting to burnout ..
So the bulb should be bad.

 

The unit the bulb is attached too will be included with the bulb....don't over think stuff...
If you are really parinoid, just switch the bulbs left to right ...

 

Don't attempt to take the bulb out of that silver unit, its all on piece. You can just disconnect it and swap it with the other side and see what happens. if it doesn't work then its the bulb.

Heres a video from bentley on it (i know the year is different, but its the same bulb)

 

Zippy gave some good advice for troubleshooting. 63-21-7-160-806 here is the part number for the bulb and less than $100. For bulbs, I typically recommend replacing in pairs as the other bulb could be on its way out. Some info here for switching to Halogen. Headlights here if needed.

 

Sure enough, I got new Xenon bulbs, and no luck.

The right one doesn't work, the left one does.

PelicanParts provided some helpful links, am checking those out.

 

I wouldn't feel bad about that, you do have an '06 that the bulbs probably didn't have much time left in them..

 

Like I said, it's not the bulbs.

 

Ya, I sure got that one backwards

 

Glad they're helpful and let me know if you need anything.

 

Weird looks like you have D2S on one side and D1S on the other side. Do you have pics of the front headlights ?