Thanks Cleric670...I believe I have narrowed it down to the ballast...I am trying to buy a ballast from Amazon but too many choices...too many un-answered questions...I was trying to find someone that had the same experience as I did; ie....bulb glass "distorted" due to overheating & ballast failuee???? ...here is something interesting...everyone (yes, even mechanics) has told me you cannot put a halogen bulb (9003...H4) on a HID/Xenon ballast but....it seems that is what I have been given by the previous owner of the car...it looks like I will confirm in a day or 2 that you can put such a bulb on a D2S/D2R ballast...I will update this once I have finished my work and have a more definite answer

 

The mechanics are correct….you can not plug a halogen bulb into a HID/Xenon ballast. They operate differently. The halogen bulb heats up the filament inside, which glows and creates light. But the HID bulb is filled with “Xenon” gas, which ignites and emits a bright light. The xenon gas inside requires a burst of high voltage upon startup in order to ignite. Thats why it requires a ballast.


Usually when talking about HID bulbs, the bulb size or type only applies to the base of the bulb (the part that fits into the headlight housing). Here is a chart which shows the many types of bulb bases commonly used in headlights. Unfortunately, they dont have the 9003 bulb listed. But they do have the H4, and if you compare it to the 9003 bulb you have, you will see that the bases are the same.

 

Lets start with what year your vehicle is and whether it's a coupe or sedan, some of the early model G35 were equipped with halogen lamps, others had D2R reflector HID, the later V35 chassis got D2S projector HID. It's pretty easy to tell the D2R and D2S apart, the D2R will have a section of the lamp that's painted to block light from emitting from that part. D2S does not.

If it's melted I would suspect someone put in a LED replacement on a halogen equipped vehicle, or the lamp wasn't put into the socket properly and it fell out and melted part of the headlight assembly.