HID Headlight Problem

[BumbaClaart]

Hi folks

Last week I noticed my "light out" indicator was lit up on the dash, and on closer inspection I noticed that the drivers side LED sidelight had popped out and was millimetres away from bouncing into the main light housing. So, I whipped the rear cover off and started to fish the LED out with a pair of tweezers. Anyway, whilst I was doing this there was a heavy rain shower, so I darted inside for ten minutes. Once stopped I came back out and sorted the sidelight and replaced the covers, but unbeknown to me at the time, a load of water had managed to get inside the housing. The next day was sunny so the water must have condensed up inside, and when the auto lights came on later that evening the HID xenon no longer fired up. The "light out" indicator did come on at the time, but has since gone off.

Since then I've dried out the interior, hoping it was just a short somewhere, but that didn't work. A week has passed and I've now tested the bulb and ballast in the passenger side and both are working fine, also the fuse works fine in the passenger side. When I knock the lights on I can also hear the auto levelling motor doing its thing. So now I'm at a loss... Fuse, ballast and light is the extent of my knowledge of headlight housings, but I gather there might be sensors etc that could be shorted/faulty?

Is there anything glaringly obvious that I've missed here? Is there another fuse or something after the fuse box? Any ideas at all would be a great help. I've kinda resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to dremel the lens off to clean it as it's now gotten really grubby inside. Therefore I might do an angel eye conversion whilst I'm at it, but I need to get the xenon working again first. Also, how easy is the bumper to get off to be able to access/remove the headlights, do you have to take the bottom cover off the car first or anything?

Thanks a lot in advance (I'll get some new photos up once sorted, since getting the car in December I've done some bits and pieces including getting it dropped), cheers again!

 

[bcworkz]

There's just simply too much moisture about. I would remove the whole assembly, disassemble all that's practical, and let the whole lot sit overnight in a very low oven, door cracked open. Ensure all accessible contacts are clean on reassembly. I've heard the bumper isn't very hard to remove, but I have no actual experience. For that matter, I can't guarantee this is the best course to follow at all. It's only what I would do. Good luck!

 

[BumbaClaart]

Thanks for the reply, I suppose I could also try plugging the removed unit into the passenger side whilst its out or get a multi meter to see if there's actually current going through. Thanks again

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[bcworkz]

You probably know this, but it's worth stating. Be careful where you stick that multimeter. HID ballasts put out thousands of volts. I'm thinking that the moisture has either caused the control electronics to temporarily fail to function, or there's enough moisture to short the high voltage outputs, preventing the bulb from igniting. Neither of which are easily verified with a multimeter.

 

[BumbaClaart]

Cheers for that, I'm not looking forward to putting any part of me near that ballast So you reckon just whip the whole unit out and dry it off properly, then just see what happens?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[bcworkz]

Yeah, worth a try, a bit of a bother, but no cost, and sounds like you're destined to take it out in any case. Worst that can happen is it doesn't work and you have to replace something. And who knows, it might work! Good luck.