No Power To Head Light?

Nightman · August 24, 2014

Hi Everyone..

I'm a newbie lexus driver and a newbie poster on the forum i think so be gentle..Lol,

Right last week i discovered my driver side headlight unit was condensing up with quite a lot of moisture inside, but my lights were working fine both main halogen and parking light, couple days ago now my halogen light went so i ordered a 40 quid one off of eBay and ventured into the bonnet to replace it.

Now it would seem you need the hands of a woman to try and change any of the light as they seem to have very very very small gaps i order to work in, so i came on the Lexus forum and read its easier to remove the air filter box and this would allow more room which i did, i whipped out the old bulb, stuck in the new one, switch on and..... nothing, no halogen, and now no parking low light either, i have fog light still and the headlights on the passenger side are working fine.

I came back on the forum this morning and read up and it maybe a case of a blown fuse, so i checked this afternoon and both 15 amp fuses in the engine compartment are fine, so now i'm a bit stumped, do i admit defeat and call the lexus garage? or is there something i've missed??

oh my lexus is a 2006 IS220d

Any feed back would be really help full, only had her 3 months now...Lol;

steve2006 · August 24, 2014

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

When you say halogen do you mean HID? just seems a lot for a standard bulb if it isn't.

One thing to try is swap the bulb from the working side to the side that doesn't and if the original bulb looks OK also try this in the working side, this will at least eliminate faulty bulbs.

You really need to confim which type of bulbs are fitted as the set up with HIDs involves a high voltage ballast.

Nightman · August 25, 2014

Hi Steve .. Thanks for getting back to me.. I have enclosed some pic's off the halogen bulb and the replacement I brought off of eBay , the bigger bulb on the left is the original one and the replacement smaller one is the one from eBay.

Del.

steve2006 · August 25, 2014

They are HID bulbs, so as I mentioned try swapping from side to side to confirm if the bulbs are OK, if they work on the good side then you are looking for a supply/wiring or ballast problem on the side that doesn't.

Just be careful as these operate at a very high voltage so don't start poking around with power applied and don't touch the glass with your fingers.

Nightman · August 25, 2014

Will do as soon as this rain ease's up, just a quick question , I had to take off the air filter box in order to get at the HID bay properly, will I have to remove anything on the other side too?

ColinBarber · August 25, 2014

ballast failure seems to be a common problem on the IS series II. It is integrated into the light so the whole assembly needs to be replaced unless you want to take it apart - there is a video on YouTube:

Exdee · August 25, 2014

Will do as soon as this rain ease's up, just a quick question , I had to take off the air filter box in order to get at the HID bay properly, will I have to remove anything on the other side too?

One bolt for the washer bottle. Don't pull the bottle out. Just move it out of the way so that you can access the bulb.

I CU2 · August 26, 2014

You don't have to take apart the entire headlight to change the ballast, you can simply undo the section that plugs into the bulb:

Nightman · August 26, 2014

Hi guys... Thanks for all your replys at the moment... just a quick update on whats happened so far, so today i had the intention if the rain would stop... of changing over the light bulb to the other side to see if it was just the driver side that was not working but because of the rain i decided to leave it, i had to go and pick up my daughter this evening so i jumped in the car and low and behold the holgen light i brought from eBay fired up???? i was so surprised i pulled over and got ouit to see...LOL,, So it would seem the ballest is ok??? the only light that now is not working is the parking light...

So the questiion is?? do i now change the other side so the light colour match up as the one from eBay is of a bluey colour than the other one which is a pure white (i guess thats the 80quid one..Lol) or do you still think the ballist is on the way out??

Del

Nightman · September 19, 2014

Hi guys...

Just a quick up date on the whole headlight thing....it would seem after weeks of working and not working on the drivers side head light, i got a couple weeks off work and finally decide to put in the work and see if the bulbs were fine and working ... so i changed over the bulbs to the passenger side and every single on of them worked which finally leads me to believe that either the ballast has gone or there's a loose wire some where as everything else in the headlight housing is working ie indicater, parking light etc etc,

So in my not so good wisdom a local garage i have used since i own my fiat panda way back... i decide to take in my Lexus to them as hey had not worked on it yet and plus the MOT was due as well so i decided to get both done, now i told the owners son the the headlight was not working and it needed a MOT so i dropped it off and came home, about 2 hours later i get a call saying it'll cost £785 to fix the headlight as i'll need a new one!!!!, i told him to put back the old one in as I'm coming to get my car!, i gets there and i still have to pay £85 for labour and for him taking the car for an MOT??? i did't click until i was home.... Why would you take the car for an MOT knowing that it'll fail because of the headlight not working????... is this common practice guys???

Anyway decided to ring my main Lexus dealer in sidcup to find out how much they charge me... and blow me down...£569...including labour and MOT!, i could't book it in fast enough!, on the day they even cleaned it inside and out too,

Moral of all this... sometimes... just sometimes... Main dealers are not to bad compared to garages you've been going to all your life..... My ex garages name? Bromley Car Care!... My new garages name? Lexus Sidup!