I did some searching on the board and wasn't able to find any problem that sounded like this one...

My car is a 2000, 77k miles, I drive with the headlights on ALL the time, since I got the car new (five years ago this month!). Driving to the store this evening, the driver's side headlight just turned off. No flicker, no variance in beam, just off. I switched the headlights off and back on and it warmed right up. Stop at the coffee shop (about 20 minutes), off to the gas station, same thing in less than one minute. Hit the switch - *Flick* it works again. Coming home from the gas station, same thing...

There's no moisture in the housing, it has never been cleared, it's basically stock (though I believe the housing was replaced around 30k miles in a front-end accident, that was well over three years ago). It was a little staticy from a good Z2Pro + ultraplush MF rubbing, but I can't imagine a little static on the lens causing this sort of problem.

Does this sound like a bulb problem? Ballast? More testing required? Suggested test conditions?

Obviously it's out of warranty... Things are starting to need replacing! (just picked up the little tiny bulb in the roof switch).

Thanks,
- Chris

 

Could be bad bulb, bad ballast, bad ground. Swap the bulbs with each other and test it out. Then, if need be, swap the ballasts with each other and test it out. Somewhere along the way, this should tell you what's not right.

 

you know...I had the same thing happen with my passenger side...except it only happened once...and it wasn't really dark out so I didn't notice when it went out, I just noticed that it was out when I got to where I was going due to a reflection in some glass...I did the same thing, turned them off then back on and it worked fine...

but it hasn't happened since then and that was about a month ago now so I thought nothing of it...

 

Thanks for the replies and the good troubleshooting suggestion, xviper. It's hard to tell if the problem has recurred during the day unless I get out to look when I arrive at my destination. I'll keep an eye out and if it does recur, I'll give the troubleshooting/switching parts out a try.

 

I've seen this before, and was able to fix it.

It appears in rare cases, moisture can find it's way into the ballast, via the braided wire cover. Underneath is a red wire and a black wire, which pass through a black grommet. Water can trickle in, and bridge the printed circuit.

First, remove the ballast. Remove the cover from the ballast, and dry it with compressed air. Put a small bead of silicone on the cover, and seal it back up.

Now to prevent....remove the hose clamp from the braided wire cover, and pull it back an inch or two. Using silcone sealer, seal where the red wire and the black wire pass through the black grommet.

Hopefully this is your problem

 

I also had the same problem and it was a bad bulb. It finally burned out and I replaced it. I swapped the bulbs from side to side to troubleshoot the problem. Once I pulled the bulbs out it was pretty apparent what the problem was...the bad bulb was black with a swollen spot on it. The good bulb was clear with yellow salts in the middle where the other was black.

If you have to buy a bulb, shop around and stay away from the dealer. I paid $89.95 for my OEM replacement bulbs from an internet store. The Honda dealer wanted $175 and said that it was a special order part and would take two weeks to get one. Mine was in my hands in two days.

If you need to work on this problem, save yourself a lot of time and trouble and pull the front bumper before you work on the headlights. It takes 15 minutes to remove the bumper and everything will be very accessible. Don't do what I did and try to switch the bulbs through the holes in the fender. Pull the front bumper.

Good luck,
Bob

PS...Since I got such a good deal on the bulb, I bought a second one and swapped both. Now I have a spare and won't have to try and drive through the winter with one headlight. Also some say that the headlights change color with age, so I changed both to keep the color the same.

 

Thanks again for the information. I haven't had a chance (or the motivation) to swap parts out just yet, but I might have to do it tomorrow because this is getting annoying - it'll barely stay on for two minutes and when it IS on, my car... um... has pink eye:



these two shots were the exact same settings on the camera, and color matched, so what you see if what it is. Yes, my driver's side marker light is dim for some reason...

Before I start swapping parts, is this any indication of one piece or the other being a problem? FWIW, it starts strong, then goes pink and looking into the projector after it switches off, it sort of glows orange down to darkness.

Thanks again for all the help.

- Chris

edit by the way, if anyone can recommend exactly what D2S bulb and where to get it, I'd appreciate it... Are these 4300

 

hmm, at first I would guess the bulb cause of the "pink eye" but...I would try the ballast first...its just confussing that your side marker light is also dim...

by knowing that I would think somebody here could figure out the source cause I could only assume they are related, but I don't think/doubt the ballast has any sort of connection to the side marker

 

ah, i should have explained. The side marker has been dim ever since I got a front-end repair about 4 years ago. I never bothered to try and track down the source of the problem (likely poor rewiring on the part of the body shop) because it's never been a huge problem - it's only slightly dimmer than the passenger side.

Thanks.

 

ohh...

then I guess I'd first try swapping the bulbs...if it persists...try the ballasts

btw, this is not too hard if you take off the bumper cover (which is easy)