Solved: Can't get Xenon ballasts back on the car

[pauliebuttons]

So I'd always laugh at taking a car to a garage to change some bulbs, but this one is really stumping me!

I've done one side, was a right pain, but all went back together fine with a few scraped knuckles. The other side though, I can't get the silver ballast(?) box thing to rotate into the locked position. If i take the bulb out, I can do it with relatively little effort, as soon as I put the bulb in, I just can't move it. Even with the old bulb!

I feel like an imbecile here. What am I doing wrong?

 

[pauliebuttons]

I went back and took the other side off to compare and half the lugs were missing...

So is the solution just to rip off some lugs?! I feel like if I force it, I'm putting so much twisting motion into the whole light unit.

 

[pauliebuttons]

Replying to my own thread for the sake of anyone else who found this problem - there is a solution:

Inside the igniter (i was calling it a ballast but may be wrong) there is a little plastic ring with dimples that should match the metal casing. Mine had got misaligned, so I realigned it with a screwdriver and it went right back in easily:



Credit: This thead on a Saab forum of all places:
https://www.saabcentral.com/threads/xenon-bulb-change-and-ballasts-will-not-turn.111812/

 

[Usel]

Glad you fixed it

 

[BumpyZ4]

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Harlock1796]

Thanks for the tip. I had the same issue with mine a couple of months ago.

Brute force, wiggling, and a couple of snapped lugs got it there in the end, but there was clearly something going on that I didn't understand - now I know for next time.

 

[pauliebuttons]

Thanks for the tip. I had the same issue with mine a couple of months ago.

Brute force, wiggling, and a couple of snapped lugs got it there in the end, but there was clearly something going on that I didn't understand - now I know for next time.

No worries. Yeah it was frustrating as hell, and I think you could easily try to force it and break something much more expensive. Once the pins are aligned, it goes in with very little effort. In the Saab forum where I found the fix, someone broke their whole light housing trying to force the issue...