Headlight bulb failure / Ballast Failure

chrisba · Post by **chrisba** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:38 pm

spearman wrote:Yeah I have a bulb out light.

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Strange.

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:35 pm

chrisba wrote:
spearman wrote:Yeah I have a bulb out light.

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Strange.

it only illuminates when I use the xenon headlight. It's my drivers side xenon headlight that's out. Every time I take the key out the ignition, it resets and the dash light goes out. When i turn the xenon lights on it beeps and the light-out illuminates again.

What light do you have out?

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spearman · Post by **spearman** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:45 pm

Today I replaced the ballast for the drivers side xenon headlight. All in all, took me 1:30mins start to finish.

I wanted to upload some pics of the job:
Remove the wheel arch clips.

Unscrew the bonnet padding part.

There's a few screws underneath, which I didn't manage to get any pics of.

Once the above was done, the bumper was held on by tension.
You need to be firm removing the bumper when disconnecting the adjoining wings. This is what the bumpers held on by:

Once both sides are out, the bumper will drop. It's VERY light, and all of the washer jets, tubes, cables etc have plenty of slack to drop the bumper to the floor.

The headlight is held in place by 4 screws

And then the headlight just pops out, and underneath is the ballast.

Unscrew, replace, and put everything back.

It's a really easy job!

Hope this helps someone

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chrisba · Post by **chrisba** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:12 pm

spearman wrote:Today I replaced the ballast for the drivers side xenon headlight. All in all, took me 1:30mins start to finish.

I wanted to upload some pics of the job:
Remove the wheel arch clips.

Unscrew the bonnet padding part.
There's a few screws underneath, which I didn't manage to get any pics of.

Once the above was done, the bumper was held on by tension.
You need to be firm removing the bumper when disconnecting the adjoining wings. This is what the bumpers held on by:

Once both sides are out, the bumper will drop. It's VERY light, and all of the washer jets, tubes, cables etc have plenty of slack to drop the bumper to the floor.

The headlight is held in place by 4 screws
And then the headlight just pops out, and underneath is the ballast.
Unscrew, replace, and put everything back.

It's a really easy job!

Hope this helps someone

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Car has been into the garage today, looks like the ballast has gone

Where did you source your part from and what did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers!

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:33 pm

eBay, hids direct. £120 new, £80 used. Pmd you

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LukeMace · Post by **LukeMace** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 12:55 pm

Just what i needed to see! Love this site!

aquazi · Post by **aquazi** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:15 pm

Great pictures spearman.

yg54sg · Post by **yg54sg** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:53 pm

oh dear i also have this issue now - one of the xenons went out the other night despite fitting new rear covers last week. It was after this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weath ... roads.html have not inspected yet but I assume there is a lot of water in the headlight as it is all steamed over exactly like your pics. I imagine the ballast is full of water too

I need to figure out how the water is getting in through as i did angel eye conversion and resealing of the lights (which i doubt is the cause as i used tons of silicone sealer) It may be i didnt fit the new cover correctly.... we will see. Taking the entire light out and indoors is the way to go I think.

I have ordered a lens polishing kit, silicone grease, some more silicone sealer and will tackle later in the week. I am hoping I can figure out which component needs replacing on the xenon ballast board or if there is some kind of internal fuse in there xenon ballast. If not its 80 quid down the shoot for a new one.

yg54sg · Post by **yg54sg** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:00 pm

Some good news... dried the light out earlier with hairdryer and dropped in 20 silica gel bags, despite new rear door it appears the water is getting in through the back again. I am thinking the metal bar that holds them is not as strong as it should be so have used silicone sealer (rubberised) to seal it up, they seem a bad design IMO there should be a channel to stop the water running down the back?? I have also tried the lights again and the xenon lights up but flickers so nothing has burnt out fully. I quickly switched it off and the plan will be to heat up the ballast unit with the hairdryer for an hour or so so that the water evaporates through the plug as no doubt the flickering is due to the ballast having water inside it shorting it out. It will need taking apart and cleaning properly though to get all the residue of the components.

cj10jeeper · Post by **cj10jeeper** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:19 pm

yg54sg wrote:Some good news... dried the light out earlier with hairdryer and dropped in 20 silica gel bags, despite new rear door it appears the water is getting in through the back again. I am thinking the metal bar that holds them is not as strong as it should be so have used silicone sealer (rubberised) to seal it up, they seem a bad design IMO there should be a channel to stop the water running down the back?? I have also tried the lights again and the xenon lights up but flickers so nothing has burnt out fully. I quickly switched it off and the plan will be to heat up the ballast unit with the hairdryer for an hour or so so that the water evaporates through the plug as no doubt the flickering is due to the ballast having water inside it shorting it out. It will need taking apart and cleaning properly though to get all the residue of the components.

I would remove any silica gel bags if you left them in. They have been used before by a forum user and once wet formed the near perfect corrosive agent totally wrecking his headlights inside....

Also dry the ballast on a warm but not hot surface as I'm sure exposure the high temerature of and hour with a hairdryer will destroy it.

yg54sg · Post by **yg54sg** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:45 pm

Thanks for the advice CJ never thought of that

, BPM and I have done a swap on some internals as one of my chromes had marks on it and he needed black inners of which i had some spare so next week i will be cutting them open again and will also remove the silica bags ... hopefully no corrosion will have formed by then. I will rethink my heating methods

cj10jeeper · Post by **cj10jeeper** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:54 am

yg54sg wrote:Thanks for the advice CJ never thought of that , BPM and I have done a swap on some internals as one of my chromes had marks on it and he needed black inners of which i had some spare so next week i will be cutting them open again and will also remove the silica bags ... hopefully no corrosion will have formed by then. I will rethink my heating methods

Nope a week won't cause any issues at all and not until they get damp inside, which they will, as headlights are always vented to some degree.

peddy · Post by **peddy** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:20 pm

If you need a new one... http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43244

yg54sg · Post by **yg54sg** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:03 pm

Thanks Peddy, I should know early next week when i get if off the car. Hopefully they can be opened up so I can sort out the residue however looking at the pics on ebay it looks like a sealed metal unit

yg54sg · Post by **yg54sg** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:15 pm

Good news , managed to fix it, opened up the ballast with the 4 screws and found water residue all over the circuit board sprayed switch cleaner over it all then a light scrubbing with old tooth brush, put silicone grease around all the seals then put it back together. It now works again! I have also sealed the rearbdoor with silicone sealer , fingers crossed his is the end of the troubles now. Also removed all the silica gel bags

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