My driver side HID light will occasionally go out while driving. Other days it'll stay on fine. If I turn the lights off and back on, it fires right up...so I don't think it's a connection issue. Bulb color is fine (I know if a bulb is going out usually the color will change).

Anyone ever replace the OEM ballast? Is it hard to do or just unscrew it from the headlight assembly and replace?

These are the originals and they are full-time when the car is one (day or night, rain or shine). Car is a 2011 with 110kmi on it.

you can try switching the bulbs from one side to the other and see if the problem follows. This will eliminate the possibilities that it might be the bulb and not the actual ballast.

I hear ya. Normally I'd do this but I'm pretty convinced it's the ballast after doing some light Google reading. Infiniti designed this car in such a way that changing a simple light bulb is a project. No way I'm taking off my wheel and wheel liner twice to move a bulb...time is money. Cheaper to buy two OEM-spec ballasts on eBay for $90 and do the job once.

Considering you switched bulbs relatively recently, I agree with you that's it's more likely the ballast than the bulb, especially because you run them all day. You'd be better off having bought a set just in case and go through the process one time.

Don't buy cheap D2S bulbs. I purchased the Osram 66240CBI 6000 in factory packaging, about $100. I bought cheap one for my maxima and they didn't last.

Andy

He has the same bulbs

A tell tale sign of a failing bulb is that it will project a pink hue.

Yeah, my bulbs are relatively new and I have the CBI's as well as Don said. My money is on the ballast and not it being a connection or anything. I'm waiting to see what TRS says a ballast for my car will cost...otherwise I'll get "OEM" ones on ebay for $45/pop and do both sides.

Okay, so my CBI bulbs were actually purchased in Dec. 2014 right after I bought the car. Hmm...might be time to upgrade them to either the CBH's or CBB's (latest). 3.5 years is quite a while considering lights are always on when the car is on.

Here's a comparison video of the CBI, CBH and CBB. Pretty much same color regardless of marketing, but massive differences in LUX (usable light basically):



For the ballasts, I'm going to order these OEM replacements instead of going with TRS (similar model number, but I save like $50-60):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Nissan-Inf ... SwLjRa9XQo

Has anyone changed the OEM ballast before? Is it accessible when you remove the wheel liner? Or do I need to remove the headlight from the car (which I believe means dropping the bumper?)?

I've never changed it but given that it's screwed to the headlight taking the entire assembly out would make it easier to remove.

Is it hard to drop the bumper? I've never removed a car bumper before...

EDIT: Looks like page EXT-15+ in the FSM shows how to do it...doesn't look THAT bad...

Not hard at all

takes less than 5 minutes (but did not remove headlight)

Thanks guys. I ordered two new Matsushita V ballasts from TheRetrofitSource and they should be here in a few days. I decided NOT to upgrade the bulbs at this time.

So I swapped the ballasts the other night and my lights are perfect again. The ones I got from TRS were slightly different and I didn't use the igniters they came with as I have NO IDEA how to remove the stock igniters. They are routed inside the headlight somehow...

Well done mate! This explains why, when I asked about ballasts, sometimes I was told you need to buy a new headlamp or you have to take the headlamp apart. I guess that was because they were including the igniters are inside the headlamp. I also considered upgrading to CCBs but my CBH's are still working perfectly and I and justify shelving perfectly good headlamp bulbs a second time. (I already did that to upgrade from CBI to CBH).

Yeah, some of these new modern car designs are insane. Makes no sense to do things the way they do them.

Someone once told me, "An engineer wouldn't build something the way he does if he was the one that had to repair it later."

Ilya, Did you have to drop the bumper to fix the ballasts? How hard was this whole fix to do?

Ilya wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:42 pm

Yeah, some of these new modern car designs are insane. Makes no sense to do things the way they do them.

Someone once told me, "An engineer wouldn't build something the way he does if he was the one that had to repair it later."

It isn't really the engineers, it's their (admittedly necessary) dependence on CAD/CAM software in the modern production environment. The answer to "why" is simple: Every car today from a Tesla to a Fiat is designed by software to be assembled by robots -- not disassembled by people. I hate it but it's true.

dTardis wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:35 pm

Ilya, Did you have to drop the bumper to fix the ballasts? How hard was this whole fix to do?

Yes I did. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, just some bolts and you're done. No other way to remove the headlight to get to the ballast.

Ilya wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 10:37 am

Thanks guys. I ordered two new Matsushita V ballasts from TheRetrofitSource and they should be here in a few days. I decided NOT to upgrade the bulbs at this time.

Ilya... I know this post is 5 years old... but I was hoping you could help me out. It appears that my headlights aren't as bright as they were. Not sure if it's my imagination. The passenger headlight is only 5 years old, or so. Anywho... I went on the site and don't see the ballast you mentioned. I'm assuming they don't sell them anymore. What I did find was this: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/d2s-x ... quantity=1. Any idea if these are good? Will they extend the range of the OEM? Do I need anything else? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to ballasts as you can see.

Big_Tone wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 3:00 pm

Ilya wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 10:37 am

Thanks guys. I ordered two new Matsushita V ballasts from TheRetrofitSource and they should be here in a few days. I decided NOT to upgrade the bulbs at this time.

Ilya... I know this post is 5 years old... but I was hoping you could help me out. It appears that my headlights aren't as bright as they were. Not sure if it's my imagination. The passenger headlight is only 5 years old, or so. Anywho... I went on the site and don't see the ballast you mentioned. I'm assuming they don't sell them anymore. What I did find was this: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/d2s-x ... quantity=1. Any idea if these are good? Will they extend the range of the OEM? Do I need anything else? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to ballasts as you can see.

Those should work with your current bulbs (which are D2S). The only downside is their form factor, it MAY not be able to be secured to the bottom of the headlight assembly like the ones I found.

These looks very similar to the ones from the factory IIRC:

Matsushita Gen V - https://www.theretrofitsource.com/oe-re ... -5-B-BL203 (these are the ones I have)
Matsushita Gen III - https://www.theretrofitsource.com/oe-re ... n3-B-BL204

You should replace both at the same time since if one is going out the other one is likely not far behind. But in theory, any D2S 35W ballast will work...you will just need to be creative with mounting it.

you could also do a led conversion
https://www.amazon.com/LASFIT-Custom-10 ... B08GS6NR3Y

Yoda's Master wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 05, 2023 6:54 pm

you could also do a led conversion
https://www.amazon.com/LASFIT-Custom-10 ... B08GS6NR3Y

Eh, I'm not a proponent of installing bulbs that weren't designed for that specific headlight. Our headlights (specifically projectors) were designed for HIDs. Not Halogen and not LEDs.

I had a 2013 Ninja ZX6R that was designed for halogen lights but had projectors. While the HIDs I installed were passable, when I tried installing $150 LEDs (expensive at the time), they were barely usable. Here is a comparison I did. As you can see, the LED high beam is not visible. Like at all. And the low beam is significantly worse than the HID low beam. I'm not saying the M56x headlight would display the same way, but it's best to stick to what it was designed for IMO.

Ilya wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 06, 2023 7:20 am

Eh, I'm not a proponent of installing bulbs that weren't designed for that specific headlight. Our headlights (specifically projectors) were designed for HIDs. Not Halogen and not LEDs.

I had a 2013 Ninja ZX6R that was designed for halogen lights but had projectors. While the HIDs I installed were passable, when I tried installing $150 LEDs (expensive at the time), they were barely usable. Here is a comparison I did. As you can see, the LED high beam is not visible. Like at all. And the low beam is significantly worse than the HID low beam. I'm not saying the M56x headlight would display the same way, but it's best to stick to what it was designed for IMO.

That's largely a problem with the bulb topology not matching D2R/D2S reflector shapes. Lasfit and Precision LED are now both making conversion kits with proper characteristics (even for D3 types), and there may be others I don't know about.

VStar650CL wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 06, 2023 8:11 am

Ilya wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 06, 2023 7:20 am

Eh, I'm not a proponent of installing bulbs that weren't designed for that specific headlight. Our headlights (specifically projectors) were designed for HIDs. Not Halogen and not LEDs.

I had a 2013 Ninja ZX6R that was designed for halogen lights but had projectors. While the HIDs I installed were passable, when I tried installing $150 LEDs (expensive at the time), they were barely usable. Here is a comparison I did. As you can see, the LED high beam is not visible. Like at all. And the low beam is significantly worse than the HID low beam. I'm not saying the M56x headlight would display the same way, but it's best to stick to what it was designed for IMO.

That's largely a problem with the bulb topology not matching D2R/D2S reflector shapes. Lasfit and Precision LED are now both making conversion kits with proper characteristics (even for D3 types), and there may be others I don't know about.

Good to know. I have some LASFIT turn signals and they seem very high quality so good to know that they are taking into account those types of variables to ensure that the lights are useable and not impacting (negatively) others on the roadway(s).

My driver's side headlight went out yesterday/today/not sure. I just ordered the LasFit LED conversion kit. Arrives tomorrow and I hope to get it installed this weekend. I'll post pics when it's done.

Big_Tone wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 16, 2023 6:53 am

My driver's side headlight went out yesterday/today/not sure. I just ordered the LasFit LED conversion kit. Arrives tomorrow and I hope to get it installed this weekend. I'll post pics when it's done.

Curious on your results. Which ones did you buy?

I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.com/LASFIT-Custom-10 ... 23&sr=1-10

Now looks like I won't have it until Monday