Headlight bulb failure / Ballast Failure

Bing · Post by **Bing** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:42 pm

I had to really prise the back off one of mine - it had obviously never been removed in it's 6 year life. Unfortunately rubber degrades over time, so unavoidable really. But agree, very annoying indeed.

T2FFN · Post by **T2FFN** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:04 am

New ballast ordered from HIDS4U...

£130 that could've been going towards the Z4M bumper

I think I might swap all of the bulbs now, as I want whiter H7 high beams and was thinking of putting 6300k Xenons in for the whiter low beams. Its so much easier changing the bulbs when the headlight is sat on a table!

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:15 pm

T2FFN, how did you get on with this?

I think I've got the same problem but no visible signs of water. I've seen condensation on the headlight before though.

I've had the wheel off, changed the bulb and tested the igniter - no power is reaching the igniter. Do you think this means it's the ballast?

Was the ballast an easy job? What's involved?

Thanks,

Sean

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T2FFN · Post by **T2FFN** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:48 pm

Hi,

Yeah, all fixed now. Its a really easy job to swap them. Before spending that cash to find out its something else, its worth taking both lights off and swapping the ballast. If it doesn't work with a known working ballast, you know its something else. They're held on with 3 screws on the bottom of the headlight, and a rubber seal that just pulls out. There is a tiny hole in the plug that that ballast attaches to the light unit. This seems to allow water to drain into it, so it seems a really bad place to put the ballast to be honest. Its alike a drain plug!

How do you know no power is reaching the igniter? Please dont say you're touching it with a tester while its live???

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:08 pm

Cheers for that!

Did you have to remove the bumper to replace the ballast?

A friend/mechanic tested the igniter with the lights on. Used a multimeter, negative on a metal engine bay, positive on the igniter. I've read about the life threatening issues, I pointed them out to him "I know, I know. It's perfectly safe you just need to be very careful" was the response. Let him get on with it.

Cheers again.

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T2FFN · Post by **T2FFN** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:43 pm

Yeah, its quick enough to just drop the bumper to get them out.

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:52 pm

Hi T2FFN,

Did you reuse the expanding clips in the wheel arch? Did you get a decent fixing when re-used?

Was just reading this, which seams to think its best to replace them :-s

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showth ... p?t=302441

Cheers for your help with this.

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Taz · Post by **Taz** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:55 pm

is a xenon not covered under warranty?

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:15 pm

No warranty unfortunately Taz

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T2FFN · Post by **T2FFN** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:16 pm

Yeah i just reused. I thought about putting new clips on but i will be taking the bumper off again soon, hopefully for the last time so may replace then. They should reuse just fine.

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:19 pm

T2FFN wrote:Yeah i just reused. I thought about putting new clips on but i will be taking the bumper off again soon, hopefully for the last time so may replace then. They should reuse just fine.

nice one! Articles helped loads by the way!

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spearman · Post by **spearman** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:55 pm

New ballast ordered from eBay (HIDS Direct Ltd) - £118.99 delivered.

Hopefully the job will be straight forward!

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T2FFN · Post by **T2FFN** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:01 am

Dropped in price, cost me £127

chrisba · Post by **chrisba** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:24 am

Did you both get a light out warning light?

I've got a bulb out currently but no warning light!?

spearman · Post by **spearman** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:46 am

Yeah I have a bulb out light.

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