NJD1977
25-10-2011, 10:04 AM
Hi, new to the forum, so hope you can help me.
My passenger side xenon headlight has a strange fault. When the car has been sat switched off overnight, or for a few minutes in a car park, both lights fire up absolutely fine and continue to stay on for the duration of my journey, however I noticed the other day that I switched my engine off at some traffic lights to save some fuel, and when I started the engine back up, the passenger light failed to fire, and the warning light came on the dash. I carried on driving for a while and then used the headlight switch in the car to turn the selector from "auto" to "on", and the light then fired up.
If I switch off the engine and fairly quickly proceed to switch it back on again, the light is either slow to fire (say 4-5 seconds), or doesn't fire at all. Once I switch if off and leave it a few minutes or overnight, then it fires absolutely fine. Again, once running, the light is perfect, no flickering and stays on for the duration of my journey.
Is this more likely to be a ballast or ignitor problem?
Are the ballast / ignitor changes a potential DIY job?
Anyone any idea on costs at the Dealer?
At the moment, I'm just living with it, because it basically doesn't cause me any problems, but I guess it may fail it's next MOT so would like to resolve before then.
Many thanks for any help.
My passenger side xenon headlight has a strange fault. When the car has been sat switched off overnight, or for a few minutes in a car park, both lights fire up absolutely fine and continue to stay on for the duration of my journey, however I noticed the other day that I switched my engine off at some traffic lights to save some fuel, and when I started the engine back up, the passenger light failed to fire, and the warning light came on the dash. I carried on driving for a while and then used the headlight switch in the car to turn the selector from "auto" to "on", and the light then fired up.
If I switch off the engine and fairly quickly proceed to switch it back on again, the light is either slow to fire (say 4-5 seconds), or doesn't fire at all. Once I switch if off and leave it a few minutes or overnight, then it fires absolutely fine. Again, once running, the light is perfect, no flickering and stays on for the duration of my journey.
Is this more likely to be a ballast or ignitor problem?
Are the ballast / ignitor changes a potential DIY job?
Anyone any idea on costs at the Dealer?
At the moment, I'm just living with it, because it basically doesn't cause me any problems, but I guess it may fail it's next MOT so would like to resolve before then.
Many thanks for any help.