All of last winter, I fought with tempermental HIDs that work when they want to. Now that its getting cold, they are acting up again. I'm about 99% sure its the ballast. I've swapped bulbs side to side and the problem is still passenger side, so its not the bulb. This leads me to think its the ballast. I have several options. 1, buy used headlight with a bulb and ballast from Ebay. 2, go to aftermarket supplier and get new ballast. 3, go to dealer and get parts I know are right albeit, $425. What do I do?

 

You most likely will get what you pay for. You'll figure it out.

 

Take it to the dealer, ebay can be...harsh.

 

Yeah, working in auto parts retail, I should have known that. Thanks.

 

Do you have the Xenons with the ignitor? Is the $425 figure real? I just replaced a Xenon low beam bulb for $201 from the dealer and thought that was too expensive. That little ignitor unit shouldn't cost that much. If we talking about the same thing.

BTW FS: glass and metal bobble on 12" stainless steel necklace - $50. Even dead that bulb should be worth something.

 

Yep. Factory xenon/HID bulbs. I've already swapped bulbs from side to side and the problem didn't change side. So, I figured its the ballast. And, it was 425 for just the ballast. I can get a bulb through work about 125. Even aftermarket ballasts are about 100-150 so that much for a control box for them is high but not outrageous.

 

I saw Hella Xenons at the auto parts store for $50 a pair in a couple different mounting styles. Actually thought for a couple minutes about the pluses and minuses to replace them wholesale and rewire the beast. It's amazing how much more expensive maintenance type parts are versus parts you normally wouldn't have to ever replace.

 

If it is an intermittent issue then check the red plastic part under the bulb. I had the same issue and found that this part had arced shorting out the system sometimes. Unfortunately it's not a stand alone part and only comes with the entire headlamp assembly.

 

Hate to break it to ya, but those lights are not actual Xenon bulbs. They are like Silverstars which only look like Xenon bulbs. A true xenon/HID bulb at a retail auto parts store runs from $130-160 on average.

 

ebay nam anywhere parts for hid lights will always be expensive ....i would stick with the dealer ...if youre within warrenty ( 4 yr of 50k miles ) you may be able to get away with that being an internal failure on the parts fault. and in that case it may be free ...so dont mess with it and take it in to your mini service advisor

 

Then I'm glad they didn't work.

I usually agree with getting everything from the dealer. Lack of other good sources lets the price stay high.

 

I already tried that. My warranty ran out about 4k miles and a year ago. Looks like the wallet will take a hit sometime soon. Hard.