Xenon Headlight Replacement advice?

[goM35]

I have an '06 M35x with 75K miles. Yesterday, the passenger side headlight began working intermittently. When the car is started or the lights turned on, the headlight either flickers for a few seconds then turns off or doesn't turn on at all. Its a random event.

Clearly this is not as simple as heading down to Pep Boys, finding the right bulb and replacing it in a few minutes. So that leaves me with a few questions:

1) What do these symptoms indicate,,,bad bulb? bad ballast?
2) if the "Ballast", what exactly is this?
3) advice on the "DIY" degree of difficulty to repair?
4) Anyone who have had their vehicle repaired at the dealer-please share impact to your wallet!

If it helps, i wish to keep the lights OEM/Stock. Thanks in advance for all your responses.

[DoN_BLaZe34]

1) in my opinion, flickering like that indicates either a bad bulb or ballast
2) the ballast what power the D2S bulbs in our cars
3) my advice would be to source some 4300K D2S bulbs from eBay and try changing that first to see if it eliminates your issue...changing the bulbs isn't hard, just a PITA. You'd have to raise the car up and remove the fender liner. From there you'll see the plastic headlight cover. Twist that off and you will then see the metal bulb holder that holds the bulb in place. I forget the direction you have to move it to get it off, but once you do, take the old bulb out, replace, and put everything back together. I can't speak on changing the ballast as I've never had to do so, sorry.
4) Again, I can't speak on this one as I've never had the dealership change my bulbs out..it's something I do myself

I'm sure others will chime in.

[MaxBolus]

I had the flickering lamp for quite a while before it finally just blew out. I actually got a replacement at Advance Auto (about 90 bucks) and installed it myself. It wasn't too bad, actually..the FSM talked about pulling the bumper or inner fender, but I was able to get to it by taking the battery out. (this is on a Y34, ymmv)
I was also worried about the ballast, but it seemed to just be a bad bulb.
Only other problem was that the new bulb was much brighter than the other side, so I ended up dropping another 90 bucks to make them even.

[kermit the guy]

just replace the bulb and if aint the bulb then its gotta be the ballast ! but yeah its a pain to change it out !

[adr4]

goM35, see link below. I did this write up, let me know if you have any questions. It is a PITA but worth the effort. Based on what you have stated I believe it is just a bulb replacement and not the ballast. Takes about 1.5 - 2 hours per side. I just had a fog light go bad a week ago and I am about to do this today.

hid-upgrade-to-6k-low-beam-fog-t471788.html

[goM35]

Thanks all for your responses. I'ts great to see this is a DIY job and can save dropping the coin at the dealer. I ordered the sylvania bulb on Amazon for $42 and will install when it arrives tomorrow.

[goM35]

I'm happy to report the Job was completed in just over 1 hour. Cost $42 versus $300 + quote from Infiniti dealer.

Hardest part was accessing the clips with the tire in place. I initially attempted to remove the wheel, but the stock tire iron doesn't cut it with the machined on lug nuts. (Makes you wonder what to do with a flat tire and no pneumatic gun!). So i just worked around the wheel and had to rotate the tire right, then left to access all the clips. Also, jacking the car up a foot helped with clearance/access to the wheel well. All went back together smoothly.

Thanks again to all for the pointers-they were very helpful and made this a relatively easy job, both on time and wallet.