Well, in addition to my wheel bearing issue, the driver's side headlight isn't powering up. I noticed it yesterday that the daytime running light wasn't going. I'm not getting any dummy lights in the dash. Anyhow, is this an easy or hard fix and what do I need to do.

I just did a search and found 3 pages of info on droopy headlights but nothing on a headlight completely out. Anyhow, any help would be awesome.

 

If you have HID's - could be an ignitor (not my area of knowledge) - if you have standard halogens it could be as simple as a burnt bulb - I believe you have to remove the bumper cover to gain access to the headlight assemblies.

 

Did you notice any change in light color before it went out? Typically if the bulb has gone bad you will see a purple / pinkish hue before it fully goes.

I would say try a new bulb first, the drivers side you can get to (its tight) but remove the air intake and you can work around it. The passengers side is a different story, fuse box is in the way.

You can find the bulbs on eBay for about $20 bucks be carefull though as the higher the light range (ie 10,000K vs 6,500K) you get less illumination 10K is bright white but distance and color dont shine as well at night in my experience, but color and hue are a personal preference afterall...

 

Is it just the DRL's or is it out under all conditions?
.
.
.

 

I would stay away from bulbs on Ebay - 99% of them are of inferior quality...

 

According to his signature, he has an S-Type R, so he has stock xenons. Check your fuses and relays, I think I remember seeing separate left / right fuses or relays for the xenons in S-Types. That could explain why only one side is out. Also, is it your low beam (xenon) or high beam (halogen)? Since you said your "daytime running light". The lights closest to the grill on all model S-Types are halogen, standard-type bulbs.

If it is your xenon and you checked fuses and relays, the next step I'd look at is your bulb and then ballast (the box that controls xenon discharging). How do you tell if it's your bulb or ballast? The way I test is by removing and disconnecting both xenon bulbs (by the way, do NOT touch the bulbs with your bare skin) and swap them. If the drivers-side works and passenger side don't, it's the bulb. If the passenger-side works and the driver don't, it's the ballast or something else down the electrical line (but this would rule out that it's the bulb). I would then swap out the ballets to confirm whether it's the ballets or something else. How do you remove stock xenon hardware? Ask someone else, I'm running my own xenons in Leona and thankfully don't got Jaguar's stock xenon system.

If you have xenons and one of them isn't working, my advice would be to get a professional to check it out as you don't wanna' screw anything up. JbB

 

well I'm finally getting to this repair? Any suggestion on where I could pickup a replacment bulb at a reasonable cost? I don't even know how much the stock replacements are....

In the meantime, I'll check out the fuses.

thanks for all the info!

 

Hi guys. I just did a quick search and here's the bulb from rockauto.com

GE Part # D2S Standard Lamp; Xenon HID
Low Beam; w/HID headlamps$61.79Add Part

 

I recently went through the same problem with my 03 S Type. I picked up a new HID bulb for around $99 at Autozone. It was a high quality Phillips. I ended up having to replace the ballast to fix my problem. I picked up one used on Ebay for around $75. You can replace the bulb without removing the bumper if you remove the air box. It is easy to get the bulb out but very dufficult to get the new one in because you can't see what your doing and the igniter is very hard to screw in correctly. If you have to replace the ballast you will probably have to drop the bumper like I did.

 

The Retrofit Source online: headlight upgrades for all applications

If you look on the pull down menu, there are tons of choices for D2S.

The moramito are from china but ok quality. The osram are an Oe replacment, osram is sylvan is in the us.

4300 k is the stock color of most hid systems and will match your other headlight the best. As the color temp goes up, you get more blue and less total light output.

I have bought from this company, and they are legit. They are well known in the hid retrofit world. If it were me, I would replace both bulbs at the same time. If the one is dead, the other cant be far behind. This will also make the colors match closer.

 

thanks for the input guys. I ordered a phillips off of amazon the other day so it should be here today or tomorrow. Hopefully I can get it tackled this weekend.

On my car I don't run the stock airbox and my driver's side is out, so hopefully it's easier.

 

FYI

You do not have to remove the whole headlight assembly to change standard halogens. My 2005 base model uses H7 bulbs. Autozone sells a pair of Phllips Ultras for $45. Took 30 minuts to remove and replace.

 

Looks to be about STRs - which have Xenons, thus D2S, ballast etc.

 

Hey guys today I tried swapping in the new bulb for my headlight set up. I picked up a Phillips bulb off of Amazon.com. It was a bit of a pain in the butt to get the new bulb seated correctly and the light socket, but I believe I got it in there. Unfortunately when I turn the car on the Light did not work.

When I remove the old bulb from the socket, I noticed it was cracked and broken. It almost look like it exploded but there weren't signs that it did. Buy signs I mean that it did not look hazy like a normal lightbulb that exploded.

I'll try and post pictures tomorrow of everything. In the meantime what do you guys think? Do you think it's a ballast? I did try resetting the bulb in the socket a few times and making sure that the cap Was tight on there.

 

Don't know about the exploded bulb, I hope you didn't damage it installing it. I had a hard time installing the bulb and had to finally remove the bumper to do it right. I spent about a half an hour trying to get that darn igniter on correctly. You also want to make sure that the wire harness is still connected to the black igniter on the end of the bulb. When I was working on my headlights I noticed one was kind of dim and found out a mechanic installed the bulb and igniter incorrectly and I had to fix that one also. It seems that the ballast going out is a common problem with these cars and fortunately you can pick up used ones on ebay.

 

While working on the light I noticed that there was a green thin wire harness that was disconnected. Is that the one that goes into the square black part that connects to the lightbulb? I glanced at the black box but I did not notice a place to plug it in. I'll have to take a second look at the harness

 

I did the same thing. You are correct that green wire connects to the black box on the end of the bulb. It is hard to connect it when it is attached to the bulb. You might have to take it back off.

 

Hey guys. I worked on the setup a little yesterday and still couldn't get it working, even with the harness attached.

I'm thinking of picking up a used ballast off ebay and working on it again. I'm also thinking of taking the bumper cover off to work on things more easily. How much work is that? Is it just the bolts on the top of the bumper cover (that attach by the headlights), the bolts that attach to the wheelwell liner and the screws for the undercarriage tray?

I'll probably hold off on working on it some more until I get the ballast in. Anyone else have any advice?

On another note, I was having trouble getting the black part that attaches to the back of the bulb to seat properly. I got it where it goes into the metal mounting piece, but I'm having trouble twisting it and locking it in place. I tried two separate times to get it to seat but couldn't get it....It appears to be in the right spot and the bulb is in there and clamped down but I can't get it to go. Anyone run into this before?

 

You can clock the whole assembly in 4 positions(ignitor and bulb assembly) but since no one mentioned it you cannot hook up the harness to the ignitor unless its attached to the headlight (its) mount. It has a lock pin to keep the harness from being plugged in. Sounds like you need a ballast to me. If you want to verify you can pull the bumper, both headlights, and swap ballasts. They unscrew on the sides

 

I agree you probably need a ballast. I didn't know about the cable not being able to plug in when its not attached to the bulb. I guess I just got lucky when I put it back together. I must have tried about 10 or 15 tries to get the igniter back on the bulb. If there is an easy way to do it I sure would like to hear about it. As far as removing the bumper its not too difficult with bolts on the top, bottom, and in the wheel well. There are good instructions in the how to section. If you want to have money you can swap the ballasts to make sure before buying one on ebay.