I've had problems with my hid's since I bought the car in February it's a 2003 mcs. My hid's work both of them. BUT depending on if they've been on for a while they tend to take Anywhere from 5 to 20 on offs before the one that doesn't work turns on.

More info nearly everytime I go to use them at least one comes on when I flip the head light switch.

I recently went to mini literally today they tested the bulbs and the ballasts and they said it's the "igniter" now I'd never heard of an igniter prior to this.

My question is.... I know that HID projector lamps are brighter (mine aren't projectors) and I know that there are hid projector headlight sets on eBay or Amazon with the black inside. Oem ones are roughly 900 for 1 installed.

Are aftermarket ones compatible with current hid as well as the auto adjust. And can I go from non projector to projector? Any thoughts? Suggestions???

 

Bump

 

Here's a little hid / headlight 101 for you:
Projector vs Non Projector simply has to do with Lens Type, non projector is your standard lg. flat/concave lens seen in all older headlights, projector is the "fish eye" or bubble type lens that helps the brighter hid bulb keep the light more focused and directionalized.
All hid's use a bulb, igniter & ballast, the difference is that with our factory setups these components are seperate, aftermarket setups have the igniter's built into the ballast's.
If you change over to an aftermarket kit the one thing you will have to check is the voltage to the headlights themselves, I've heard (not sure) that the factory wiring for hid's weren't actually feeding 12v to the headlight system, and aftermarket kits work off 12v, if you can verify that your wiring is feeding 12v to the headlights then an aftermarket replacement kit will work, you'll just have to remove the factory ballast & ignighter and figure out how to re-mount the aftermarket one.
As far as auto-levelers, they are built into the headlight assy. itself & will only be on the factory ones, if you change over to the aftermarket assy. you will loose that feature & have to set them manually.

As far as the least expensive fix, I'd say do some research into finding out if the ignighters are the same throughout the different years & try to find one, or better yet a pair, (there both the same) in a junk yard, should be considerably cheaper. BTW the ignighter is the little box that actually attach's to the base of the bulb, the ballast is the small box mounted on the outside of the assy.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks a lot. That's some great info thank you. Guess I'll keep a eye out for an igniter.

 

I'm going to retract a little of that, it may not be the least expensive, but it will be the easiest & least invasive, so if you find some, you'll just have to weigh that out.
Good Luck.