My passenger side HID headlight quit working. I swapped the whole assembley (light and base) to the driver side and it works. I checked the wiring harness that plugs into the headlight assembly and have 12v there. One thing I don't understand is the wirning inside the headlight assembly has three wires that plug into the light (white, black, and green). I figure one is ground but not sure why there is two other wires. Is the ballast what the bulb plugs into or is it somewhere inside the headlight assemby. Please help

 

the ballast, ignitor or bulb could have failed. your next test should be to put the working bulb into the non-working side, of that works it is the bulb. if not, keep the bulb there and put the working side's ignitor (the small box that attaches to the bulb) on that side. if that doesn't work out is the ballast.

 

its probably the ballast. easiest way to find out if its the ballast bulb or ignighter is to swap some parts left to right.
P.s not working

1. swap d.s ignighter into p.s headlight with p.s bulb - works? ignighter broken doesnt work? > step 2

2. use D.S bulb and ignighter on p.s - works? = original bulb blown ..no work? ballast broken.

to change the ballast you have to take the bumper off...big Pain...
there is aftermarket d2s bulb adaptors you can use that take aftermarket ballasts the ones with built in ignighters... to do this you have to splice into the wires, dont use the ignighter and but a HID conversion kit. im going to be doing this because i figured out the cost of these parts is $70-80 and to replace just 1 ballast its 150 for a used one(300+ new), 100 for a ignighter and then whatever price you find the bulbs for

 

Thanks, I swapped the bulb and ignighter and it still doesn't work. Looks to be the balast. Any suggestions on an after market kit?

 

i order my HID kits from VVME.com they seem to be cheaper than anywhere else and you still get quality products, but i have heard from a couple people that if they get your order wrong or you have a rare failure you are better off just prdering what you need again than arguing with them.
ive bought a couple times and been running 1 vvme hid kit for over a year now, no issues at all.

then you need a d2s connector - something like this, vvme is out of stock so they took it off their website(their rep told me)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2X-D2...Q5fAccessories

now, this is what i am about to order and attempt on my girls jag, i have not done it but based on my research this should work.

unplug your plug that goes into your stock ballast, it is inside the housing. splice into it and locate the 2 wires that make 12v, those will connect into your new aftermarket ballast.
ballats has built in ignighters.
plug ballast into d2s connector
bulb into d2s connector
bulb into headlight housing.

now you will most likely need to do a little drilling in the dust shields for the headlights and then put the wires through it then silicone it to seal it around the wires.

with this you most likely dont need to take off the bumper if you are able to reach both bulbs ok, and just leave the stock ballasts where they are and unused.

a similar mod/repair has been done with the cts but they make a d1s aftermarket ballast so its just find the 1 wires for power in tap those into new ballast then ballast into bulb...no connector required, but basically same process.

 

That all sounds good but I'm not sure how to get to the balast to unplug it and then are the wires long enough to reach them inside the housing?

 

the plug that goes into the factory ballast is actuall nevt to the high beem bulb, the headlight housing has a cutout in the bottom that the ballast plug goes through then the plug harnedd goes into it. its a little weird though as you already mentioned, you have 3 wires out of the ballast into the ignighter, and i think there are 3 in, all of these wires are on the same plug and the only way to know how which ones are power in and power out are to unplug it and test for Volts or to follow the wires..the ones going from the plug into the ignighter are obviously power out, the ones going from the inside of the housing to the plug are power in...but test to make sure you grab the right ones.

i can take a pic maybe later today or tomorrow...the jag isnt here right now.