HID lights @#$% - Can I go back to plain old halogen?

[fbonds]

Greetings all

I bought a 2001 QX4 about a month ago w/ 115K. Runs pretty well, but I'm having problems with the HID headlights. They're stock.

The right one would flicker and go out when I turned it on.

I read some stuff online and someone said it was probably the the ballast.

So I took the grill off and took the lights out and switched the ballast and put it all back together.

Turned on the the lights and the same problem occurred on the same side (right).

So not the ballast.

The bulb? I figured it'd either work or not ... not work intermittently. That really didn't compute, but I went and bought a new one.

I stuck it in and it worked. Turned the lights on and they stayed on.

For about 3 days. Then the right one went out.

Now no flicker. It just doesn't turn on.

Next up is the switch on the steering column according to the forums here. Yippee.. another $100ish. I'll try that on pay day next week.

Until then, I'm curious... is it possible to replace the whole HID setup with plain old halogens?

Are there plain halogen lights available for QX4?

OR Are the moldings of a 2001 Pathfinder's non-HID lights the same & wiring compatible such that I could switch those?

I feel like just getting rid of $$$HID$$$ system altogether if it's possible to do so.

Thanks!!

[skiski329]

idk the hid bulb, you would have to get a halogen bulb that has the same pins. but usually manufactures create special hid bulbs to match the pins of halogen bulbs to make an easy retro fit, so with the very limited info you gave me that's at a maybe. Now that's not dealing with all the other conversion issues.
now kinda an out there idea, but what if you got an aftermarket hid system wiring harness. That would draw power from your battery and only uses the info from your current lights to see if they are on or off. There are different harnesses for halogen and standard hid bulb types like D2S and stuff. But idk if nissan made some type of special connections

So depending on the connector 2 out-there ideas could be to get a harness to run your old system (assuming you didn't blow the ballast again). or if you can connect an aftermarket ballast, bulbs, and the harness. anyway i do recommend ddmtuning.com i've gotten all my hid stuff from there since 07 and did all my retro fits and plug and plays for me and friends using their stuff. Over the years it feels like they cut corners Ie. the new stuff doesn't come with the male or female plastic connector and they put in metal that i think is starting to corrode on my newer system. but in the end they have lifetime warrantee and whenever i've had a ballast go out, i sent it in and got a new one. I just wish they kept their older stuff, i've got a set from 07 that survived a car reck and i put in my new car (and all sturdy feeling plastic, so no rust)

[4xq]

A couple of things to try in the meantime-

There are a couple of headlight fuses under the hood - did you check those?
There are two headlight relays under the hood that turn on the lights when you hit the switch. Swap those like you did with the ballast and see if the problem goes to the other side. They are cheaper than the switch. Once you know where the relays are, its pretty easy to see if you get 12 volts to the relay when you turn on the headlight switch.
There are headlight grounds behind the headlights, up on the fender. Take a wrench and retighten just to be sure your grounds are good.

The Pathys headlights were a different shape, and so the hood has a different curve than the Qx4. That kept a lot of people who owned Pathys from switching to the xenons.

You might find a little better price on a headlight switch at rockauto if that ends up being the problem.

[fbonds]

Awesome idea about the Relays and Grounds. Thank you!

I checked the relays this morning before work (those little things aren't easy to get off..) and the problem stayed on the same (right) side.

I'll check the grounds tonight.

I neglected to mention in the original post that this only affects the low beam. High beams both work fine.

Thanks all!

[fbonds]

On closer examination this proved to be a blown 20A fuse..