My passenger side headlight randonly flickers once or twice than turns off. I flip the headlight switch off than back on and the headlight stays on. Turns off every 5-10 minutes at that rate. 5-10 miles. I first replaced the D2R bulb and problem still occurred. Bought a ballast and problem still occurs. So now I'm at a lost. A few guys I talked to prior guaranteed me it was the ballast without a doubt. I think maybe look at the igniter maybe. Not sure where or how to buy just the igniter. This is a 03 G35 sedan with oem HIDs.

I do all my driving mainly at night so this is an issue I need resolved as I'm throwing money at a expense I can use elsewhere that hasn't helped but made my pockets smaller

 

Have you checked out the troubleshooting steps in the FSM?

http://www.nicoclub.com/service-manu.../Sedan/2003/lt

Have you checked the IPDM, BCM, Wiring harness, and ground?

With a fifteen year old vehicle it might be cheaper for you to pay a dealer diagnostic fee to tell you what part is failing?

Perhaps the few guys that guaranteed you that the ballast was the problem will reimburse you?

Telcoman

 

Lamp cycling is almost always the ballast, did you buy a BRAND NEW OEM ballast? Where did you buy it?

This is all "generally speaking" but typically:
-If the lamp is dim or will only strike the issue is typically the lamp
-If the lamp fails to strike it's typically the igniter or ballast
-If the lamp strikes, burns for a short duration, then stops/restrikes or just turns off it's typically the ballast.

Ballasts get pretty hot and have thermal protection built in, poor electrical connections cause more heat (including that ground telcoman mentioned), as ballasts get old they also generate more heat as their internals wear out (either the control board or the auto-xfrm).

$120 dealership diagnostic is definitely cheaper than throwing parts at a vehicle if you can't accurately troubleshoot the issue.

 

First 2 aren't an issue. Bulbs burn bright. Philips. Never fails to strike ever. What sucks about the igniter on the 03-04 is isn't a separate wiring harness that plugs in. All 5 wires go into the harness for the ballast in one. I guess I can rule out another faulty ballast by swapping ballasts. I did check and clean all grounds. I haven't metered anything, which I can imagine will be somewhat hard since it's all a tight fit with wiring slack while connected.

I can try the ballast swap first and that well tell me something at least. I'm trying to stay away from the dealer as even at the age of 35 I have never resulted in anything dealer related. Never had too. I assumed a bad ground would cause dimming or fail to turn on which isn't an issue

 

Bad ground causes excessive heat not dimming in an HID application.

 

I'm pretty sure the 03 sedans had halogen bulbs not HID's. My 05 uses D2R bulbs and I think yours are either H1 or H4. Is that correct?

 

Have you swapped the ballast yet? If so did it work?

I am having the exact same issue, I swapped the headlights and ballast but both headlights are doing the same thing. Please inform me of what you find.

Thank you,
David

 

I have an '03 and it has the D2S bulbs stock.

 

 

Oem. Crap. Get out of here

People pay a premium for Matsushita ballasts for a reason. DDM tuning is total crap, and there have been many confirmed cases of cars burning to the ground because of those Chinesium ballasts!!!

 

 

That's funny we use the same terminology, the ballasts we get sent at work have a 15% chance of not lasting a week so we pre-lamp and test everything.