I am seeing a strange issue with my drivers side headlight, a slight flickering,(not completely off )but bright/dim only when moving, when idle,it stops. Battery is getting a little weak, but still cranking the car just fine (12.2v with the car off, haven't metered with it running) , Connections at the battery are clean.

has anyone seen this before? do you think it could be the battery, or, is this the bulb or the ballast? From doing a little digging it looks like I have my work cut out for me either way, just hoping someone has seen / resolved this and can point me in the right direction before I get started.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

werewolftigermonkey wrote:. Battery is getting a little weak,

How do you know that without testing it?

werewolftigermonkey wrote:I am seeing a strange issue with my drivers side headlight, a slight flickering,(not completely off )but bright/dim only when moving, when idle,it stops. !

Did you try swapping bulbs?

werewolftigermonkey wrote:
.. do you think it could be the battery, or, is this the bulb or the ballast? From doing a little digging it looks like I have my work cut out for me either way, just hoping someone has seen / resolved this and can point me in the right direction before I get started.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

If your battery is more than three or four years old it probably needs replacement

Test the cells with a battery hydrometer



If replacing the bulb doesn't cure the flickering it could be a bad connection or the ballast.

Good luck

Telcoman

How do you know that without testing it?

I have a load tester and the rated CCA of my battery is 650, currently testing at 490 CCA I have not tried swapping the bulb, probably a good first step, but since I have to jack up the car and remove the wheel, I was just looking to see if the ballast is a common problem or it is more likely to be the bulb.

I am not used to HID systems and was not sure how the bulbs age, incandescent/halogens just burn out, is this behavior the same in HID's?

Also if it is the battery I would assume that I would see voltage dips elsewhere (like the other headlight, stereo, interior lights) and I am not seeing anywhere other than drivers headlight.

Thanks!
Mike

You are correct. If it was the battery you would not have a problem with just one headlight.

Starter wrote:You are correct. If it was the battery you would not have a problem with just one headlight.

kinda what I thought--
I have not opened anything up yet, but are there connections that are prone to coming loose in there? that would seem to me to be the most likely cause, but again I am new to the HID's and really not sure about their particular issues.

It's probably time to replace the bulbs. Do them in pairs.

Thanks, I will probbably do this today, how long do these last for, and is there a better brand to get? I dont want to be doing this whole process more often than necessary.

^^^^^^^^^^

The OEM bulbs on my previous 06 G35 lasted the almost 7 years and the 171796 miles that I owned the vehicle.
It was the intermittent drivers side ballast that was one of the reasons I chose to trade it in for a new vehicle.

I decided it was better and more cost efficient for me to let the next owner worry about it.

Telcoman

The left bulb on our '05 failed at about 115K. As mentioned earlier, replace them in pairs... the color temperature of HID bulbs changes as they age, so even if you bought a new factory bulb from the dealership, they would be mismatched. You can get really good deals on bulbs on ebay or Amazon - but the counterfeit market is huge for HID bulbs. Your call or trying them or getting genuine Phillips or Sylvania through a more reputable channel. I got lucky - another member gave me a "low mileage" OEM pair that he swapped out of his car to run a different color temperature, so I never actually made the call on which way to go for bulbs.

Changing them is pretty easy once you figure out how the retainer clip engages the bulb. It can be done without even taking the wheels off. Just have a few of those POS fender cover clips on hand... they'll break when you touch them. I order them in bulk off of eBay.

To check if it's the ballast vs. bulb, swap them left to right and see if your flicker follows the bulb, or stays with the ballast.

Good luck!

Heath

I've never had a factory bulb fail because I usually pull them out and replace them with 6000k. The 6000k in my coupe lasted almost 6 years before I replaced them for being WAY too dim (over time) and I probably should have replaced them much earlier. Currently running the factory bulbs and miss the white/blue output of the 6000k's.