I've noticed as of late that when I turn the headlamps on, the passenger side lamp come on, but the right side just flickers for a few seconds like a fluorescent lamp , and then comes on a few secs later. When it does come on, the light output is rather yellow in color, then later changing to more inline with the already powered up headlamp.

Other times, when I power them up, they both work just fine together like there isn't a problem.

Other times I have noticed that I could be driving, and then suddenly the left side lamp just starts flickering again like a fluorescent lamp.

Other times, I power them up, and I get the flickering from the right side headlamp, and then it just goes off completely, leaving the passenger side lamp working.

I've tried new bulbs all around. This helped for about 2-3 weeks, then the issue came back again again.

I then tried switching the bulbs around to eliminate an issue with the bulbs themselves, and the problem stays in the left headlamp.

Now, what I don't know is if this is all characteristic of an issue with the ballast itself.. I also hear that the Subaru JDM projetor headlamps don't include the ignitor in the ballast itself, which makes it hard to know where to look really...

Ideas?

You can try swapping ballasts like you did with the bulbs if they're accessible to identify the problem... if thats not it, I'd say check connections you may have jarred something loose somewhere? GL keep us posted

unfortuntely that's the only aspect I realized that I did not check. I can't easily rip them out, but what i can do is to try both headlamps on the driver's side ballast to see if the flickering occurs.

I'll hopefully try this a little later this evening.. My back is screaming from my earlier attempts to diagnose the issue..

Another thing I'm thinking is a bad ground? Not sure how to go about checking for one though :(

ok. more info..

The highbeams on the same side (with the offending headlamp) dont work either... although the parking lights seem to work just fine.

I also notice that when I flick the headlamps on, the highbeam indicator come onthe dash VERY briefly also then goes off just as quickly..

Sounds like a bad ground somewhere?

What I'm a little unsure of is why the little stuff is working (parking lamp and indicators), but not the main lamps... Do they all not share a common ground?

How are the lights wired up. Do you have a relay harness or are the highs and lows just wired into the 9007 plug? It could be a relay or ground problem.



The igniter is built into the headlight housing. The only way to change it is to bake the light in the oven and disassemble it.

Which ballasts do your lights have?

Matsu$hita Gen 1.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/yuandrew/Cars/Lighting/HID/InfSinglXen1.jpg

Gen 2.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w86/oemxenonparts2/DSC03362.jpg

The little black boxes in the second pic are what your igniters probably look like.

Try switching the ballasts and see what happens. If the ballast is bad, the Gen2s are readily available. Nissan used them on a lot of their vehicles in the US. I had to replace one of mine. It got wet and fried. The Gen 1 are not as common, but can be found from time to time. Nissans used these in the US as well. You can get either on EBay or the classifieds on www.hidplanet.com.

As for how the lamps are wired up, I had WagonHo install them for me with a plug and play harness that he used to make and sell.

The ballasts that I have are the Matsu$hita gen 1 units in your first picture.

oddly enough, I used the car tonight to get a voltmeter from the hardware store and the lamps worked just fine on both sides.. They fired up perfectly when I restarted the car leaving the store.

Sure enough, I got back home, turned them off, and then turned them back on again, and the driver's side lamp started its flickering again... How annoying..

Now to figure out what exactly to do with the multimeter :lol:

got the issue sorted out today.. Issue wasn't the ballasts at all or igniters. Issue was the plugs that control the leveling motors in the headlamps. Seems a couple of the wires in the plug had popped out. They weren't crimped properly..