Nearside Headlamp Light Intermittently Goes Out

[mikeylexus]

Hi

I've just bought a 2006 IS220d and an occasional fault occurs with the front nearside headlamp unit where it just occasionally goes out. It works 95% of the time and then just goes out without flickering or anything like that. If I restart the car it works again. I wondered if anone has got any idea what might be causing the fault?

[ColinBarber]

probably a ballast fault which seems to be common with these light units. Unfortunately it isn't easy to just replace the ballast.

[ChumpusRex]

Most likely to be a faulty bulb. A bulb working when cold, but going out once fully warmed up is a very common type of bulb failure.

[ColinBarber]

Don't go to the expense of getting a new bulb, swap them over to see if the fault moves. So many threads on here about replacing HID bulbs that either don't fix the problem or introduce more issues.

[mikeylexus]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try out the bulb swap first and see if the fault transfers.

[juicestop]

Most likely the bulb, I had the same problem a while back. If your test confirms this, replace both if HIDs.

[ChumpusRex]

The HID bulbs are relatively expensive £30-40 per bulb. So, you might not want to change both bulbs for new ones.

It's quite a lot of work to get to the bulbs (at least on an IS250) and quite fiddly (I changed a side light today, and lost a bolt somewhere on the car's undertray). The other issue is that the bulbs change colour as they age, and they get dimmer with age too.

If you change one you may find the new one is bright white, and the older one is a dimmer purple.

I'd recommend getting a good brand bulb (Osram, Philips or Toshiba) to avoid having to change them again. Philips are easily available at a good price and indistinguishable from the Toshiba/Harison bulbs that came from the factory. The cheapies do work, but mine only lasted about 18 months; the surviving bulb was also MUCH dimmer than the replacement.

Example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-PHILIPS-D4S-XenEco-Xenon-35W-Xenon-HID-BULB-4300K-42402-BEST-QUALITY-/301104494833