Just the other day my drivers side factory Xenon was not coming on. I pulled the D2S bulb out with the ignitor and ran some voltage tests at the plug that goes to the ignitor from the ballast and it had around 5V.

I am not of the spec on that Voltage.
Is there anyway to test the HID bulbs since there is no filament to check for a continuity test? I have a new Philips D2S on order but I wanted to know if there are any other tests I can run. I know in the Owners Manaul it says the D2S bulbs are not replacable (BS!!) and should be taken to a dealer.

I will have to look through JTIS to see what if anything it says.

Also, I have been running the 194 style 5w LED city light replacements from VLEDS and I swearI have gone through 2 pairs in not even a year!!

The individual LED's start to burn out till there is 2 or 3 left on and then they start strobing and flickering!

Are there any other brands that will last longer...I thought LED's rep was to have superior longevity.
Anyone else having such bad luck with these??
TIA!!

 

you probobly have a bad bulb, its most common failure, and No I dont test test I have few I know work and swap them in. And LEDs are a whole other ball of wax, many SUK, yes they use less power and look great, but there are SO many cheap crappy ones on the market I have resorted to buying in 10 packs

 

I bought a brand new Philips D2S bulb and put in the Left side lamp and NADA!!

It did not come on or even flicker. I checked voltage at the ignitor while it was plugged in with the bulb out and I got 0.5V DC and some mere mV's for Volts AC.

I read that there should be ~85V AC at the ignitor.

I hate to just throw parts at this problem but I am having a hard time ascertaining some concrete tests to do diagnose which component has failed.

 

I looked around and found a used Hella ignitor on ebay. The seller sent me pics of the unit and it working. I got it today and installed and "let there be light". So I have a spare Philips D2S now but that is not a horrible thing to have an extra of.

I got some 85 lumen w5w bulbs to replace the LED's for the city lights. The new bulbs:
Product Name: CP2886X 2886, 194, 168 12V, W5W, 6W Xenon Incandescant Bulb, 85 lumens vs 50 lumens.
I bought them from Susquehanna MotorSports at rallylights.com

Now I am wanting to get some higher wattage H1 bulbs for the fog lights, not sure if I want to go with the yellow color or not yet.

 

Can you tell me how to remove the bulb? It is easy enough to take the covers off, and the back off (counter clockwise turn) but the bulb does not come out? I don't see any clips, and have tried rotating it and it won't budge. I don't want to press or turn too hard in fear it might break something like the leveling mechanism. Since you have changed the OEM Xenon bulb, can you give me a walk through on how to do it?

 

The new balast/ignighter...is there a link or model of it? Did it just snap in where the factory 1 was before?
I have a dead balast ...I think
And also like you I got new hid D2S bulbs..

 

Chas, I replaced my running lights with a single 10mm 280K MCD LED. They are just about as bright as the factory 5W bulb, but they burn very white. I like the look. I can't speak for longevity as I installed them 4 months ago. But, so far, so good. Unfortunately, they are not a simple plug and play mod. You end up having to cut a wire going to them and installing a resistor to drop the voltage down to what the LED can handle. But, for $1 a bulb/resistor, I can do a lot of bulbs for next to nothing.

If you need more info about this, let me know. IT is not a hard job, but you have to be able to solder and use heat shrink tubing.