Need some advice on hid head lights

Speed777

Speed777

Greenie N00B Member
Well the time has comed to replace my hid headlight bulbs and wanted some advice from any of you that have had experience with up to date products.
Unfortunately my left beam bulb is not lighting, i tried with switch to full
and still not working. Any advice would be gladly appreciated
 
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Thank you so much guys for all the help and advice given
Unfortunately money wise im not able to retrofit morimoto d2s projectors at this moment so i need to solve this issue quickly before i get a ticket.
The question is bulb wise do you still recommend morimoto d2s bulb?
If the ballast were to be the problem
what options do i have? oem or aftermarket?what aftermarket brand?
can i install 55w ballast on my car?
 
The Morimoto bulbs are good bang for the buck. If you look up testing on them they perform very well.

As far as ballasts go I've had pretty good luck getting used OEM ballasts on eBay. I believe the OEM ballast in the Speed also has some other OEM applications.

Does your car have factory HID or did you just put HID bulbs in the Halogen Projectors?
 
Raider said:
I replaced my OEM with Morimoto DS2 and they were so much brighter. Guess HID fades out over time. Try swapping L to R and see if the issue follows the bulb.
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Raider, you are correct HID bulbs do lose intensity as they age. That being said the stock bulbs these cars came with were not anything to write home about so I am not surprised by your experience.

I'm running Osram Nightbreakers and the difference coming from the OEM bulb was huge. I am a big fan of Morimoto stuff they make really good aftermarket bulbs and kits. I've had their XB LED fog assemblies for about 7 years now and they are fantastic.
 
As Raider said, switch bulbs and see if that's the issue.
Your bio doesn't list year of your Mz3 so depending on gen 1 or later. HID bulbs are same but ballast and or ignitor are different. After you try bulb exchange and find out status. If bulb change doesn't work, then the supporting ignitor and or ballast are bad. You can exchange those and try again.
Not cheap, but here's what RockAuto shows for both gen.
Screenshot_20231024-205233_DerpLauncher.png Screenshot_20231024-205339_DerpLauncher.png Screenshot_20231024-205730_DerpLauncher.png Screenshot_20231024-205812_DerpLauncher.png Screenshot_20231024-205820_DerpLauncher.png
 
Mtnbker3531 said:
Raider, you are correct HID bulbs do lose intensity as they age. That being said the stock bulbs these cars came with were not anything to write home about so I am not surprised by your experience.

I'm running Osram Nightbreakers and the difference coming from the OEM bulb was huge. I am a big fan of Morimoto stuff they make really good aftermarket bulbs and kits. I've had their XB LED fog assemblies for about 7 years now and they are fantastic.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for sharing this info. ive been looking at these osram nightbreakers aldo and since you have had experience with both, if the problem were to be bulb, which is brighter or which do you recommend of the two morimoto bulb or osram nightbreakers?
my car is gen 2 2013 and im running
osram bulbs but don’t remember what model is it.
if the problem were to be ballast /ignitor which brand in rockauto do you recommend?
 
Speed777 said:
Thank you so much for sharing this info. ive been looking at these osram nightbreakers aldo and since you have had experience with both, if the problem were to be bulb, which is brighter or which do you recommend of the two morimoto bulb or osram nightbreakers?
my car is gen 2 2013 and im running
osram bulbs but don’t remember what model is it.
if the problem were to be ballast /ignitor which brand in rockauto do you recommend?
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So I'll ask again, you have a 13 Speed is it the Tech Package with factory HID or did you toss HID bulbs in your halogen projectors? If your car is a tech package with OEM HIDs then see below.

Like I mentioned I've had good luck with used OEM ballasts from eBay. If you want to go that route I would do some homework and find the OEM part number. Then you can use that part number to make sure you are getting an OEM ballast. Mind you it will be a used ballast but it will be cheaper than buying a new one. The one I bought even came with an ignitor.

As far as after market ballasts I have no experience other than Morimoto. I'm running Morimoto XB LED fog light housings on the Speed and I also have a Morimoto HID retrofit on my DD which I am quite happy with for the price.

As far as which bulb to get that's up to you and your budget. I would head over to YouTube and search for D2S comparison testing and see what you dig up. I know Morimoto has a vid over there but it's a few years old where they did a shootout of all the latest D2S HID bulbs at the time.
 
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Mtnbker3531 said:
So I'll ask again, you have a 13 Speed is it the Tech Package with factory HID or did you toss HID bulbs in your halogen projectors? If your car is a tech package with OEM HIDs then see below.

Like I mentioned I've had good luck with used OEM ballasts from eBay. If you want to go that route I would do some homework and find the OEM part number. Then you can use that part number to make sure you are getting an OEM ballast. Mind you it will be a used ballast but it will be cheaper than buying a new one. The one I bought even came with an ignitor.

As far as after market ballasts I have no experience other than Morimoto. I'm running Morimoto XB LED fog light housings on the Speed and I also have a Morimoto HID retrofit on my DD which I am quite happy with for the price.

As far as which bulb to get that's up to you and your budget. I would head over to YouTube and search for D2S comparison testing and see what you dig up. I know Morimoto has a vid over there but it's a few years old where they did a shootout of all the latest D2S HID bulbs at the time.
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Thanks again for writing! yes my car is a tech package 2013
i did my homework of researching which hid bulb is top notch and i found a recent test retrofitsource did and it turns out that philips xv2 is the daddy of all but they go for $165.00.
I’ll be doing some testing on monday.
Forgot to tell you that the headlight is been having a inner moisture problem so that being said ive also been thinking if a fuse has blown and thats why its not working.
Do you happen to know what is the fuse responsible for the driverside head lamp and how many amps is it?
 
Speed777 said:
Thanks again for writing! yes my car is a tech package 2013
i did my homework of researching which hid bulb is top notch and i found a recent test retrofitsource did and it turns out that philips xv2 is the daddy of all but they go for $165.00.
I’ll be doing some testing on monday.
Forgot to tell you that the headlight is been having a inner moisture problem so that being said ive also been thinking if a fuse has blown and thats why its not working.
Do you happen to know what is the fuse responsible for the driverside head lamp and how many amps is it?
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If you donate and become a metal member you'll have access to the factory service manual that is hosted here. With that you can troubleshoot to your heart's content. It's quite a deal seeing the minimum price of admission is only $10! :grinning:
 
Well guys after taking of bumper and swapping ballast, i found out the problem is the ballast which had water and moisture. I have to gind out who can re-seal the whole plastic unit.
If i can’t find someone fitted to do it then im gonna try to replace new the rubber seal on the ballast and buy a oem used one. Also seal plug connected to ballast with silicone.
Do you guys now where can i get a oem used one in good conditions?
or do you recommend aftermarket brand?
 
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