Xenon Headlight Troubleshooting

[vinceinIL]

I had the driver's side Xenon low beam headlight on my '01 525iT stop working. I carefully replaced the bulb with a new one, but it still does not work. No blown fuses that I can see. Is there a way to test the squarish electrical box or something else I should check?

Thanks,

Vince

[StRaNgEdAyS]

Don't try to test for output where the bulb plugs in...
That's a good way to get seriously injured. Test for voltage at the input side first. If you have 12V at the input plug, and nothing out of a new bulb, then it's likely that the ballast is shot.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

[vinceinIL]

Thanks! Will do

[computiNATEor]

Don't try to test for output where the bulb plugs in...
That's a good way to get seriously injured. Test for voltage at the input side first. If you have 12V at the input plug, and nothing out of a new bulb, then it's likely that the ballast is shot.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

Yes, the ballasts put out extremely high voltage. Be careful.

Used ballasts are like $50? I think? And they're pretty common.

[Thrifty S50]

I recently jusy replaced one of my xenon ballasts(the squarish electrical box) with a ballast i found in a junkyard. It was 16$.

Ballasts are the same for pre facelift and post facelift cars. They are also the same from left to right, so take your working side ballast and put it on the non working side, to verify that they are working / not working.

[balidawg]

Swap parts, such as the ballast, between left and right sides to isolate the bad part, then replace that. You don’t want to guess and replace the wrong part.

i had the right side ballast go bad a few months ago and ordered two new ones from fcpeuro.com; they’re not cheap!

[Thrifty S50]

Holy crap, 236 (for Hella) each on FCP, or 534 (for oem bmw, which is weird because hella is oem) . Glad i only got mine for 16$.

Save yourself some $$$ and visit the junkyard. Buy the $5 warranty so you can return it if its not working.

[effduration]

Bought these on Amazon for $40 ea. You do get what you pay for, but it's been 6 mo in cold weather and so far so good.

AGT D2S D2R Replacement Ballast For OEM Type 5DV
by AGT

http://a.co/3UvuNBC

[balidawg]

On my E46 I just bought some cheap Chinese made ballasts on ebay at $40 each as a bit of an experiment, and so far so good. At that price I can replace them every year for several years for less than OE replacements, so there’s that.

[vinceinIL]

Thanks for all the info! I checked the power at the connector and had 12v. So I put one of the spare ballasts I've acquired at the local 'yard in place and connected the power and the light and.....I have light!

Thanks for the useful info! Now on to the next questions....

Vince