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Nimraynn

Xenon ballast

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Hi guys,

I have a set of xenon headlights that came from (I believe) an 02 plate M3 and one of the bulbs has gone on it.

I'm going to swap the bulbs, but in my limited knowledge, I'm led to believe you'd normally notice a change in the colour of the light as a xenon bulb starts to die. This didn't happen on mine, it just suddenly cut while driving, coincidentally after going through a deep puddle when a road started to partially flood the other night... so I think the water has got somewhere it shouldn't and has potentially killed the ballast or something like that.

If the ballast does need replacing, can I use any E46 ballast or does it need to be a specific one? The ones I had at the moment are bi-xenon, but I don't have them wired up like that as I've only got the one plug rather than the two. With this in mind, can I get away with fitting a non-bi-xenon ballast (i.e one with only one plug on it) or do they work differently even if not wired up as bi-xenon, if that makes sense?

Thanks.

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I have this problem too!

There's a difference between the ballast, and the igniter. Google suggests its usually the igniter, which is the black box inside the headlight...

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I'm just going to order the ignitor - it's £40 posted from one of the Baltic states vs. a lot more for a ballast, and general concensus seems to be that the ballast is less likely to die.

I just need to swap the bixenon light for a halogen one while I find the ignitor part number :(

Edited by TriggerFish
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Well it's been a while and I've only just got round to looking at this properly. It is the ballast that is faulty :( I swapped the ballasts from side to side and the problem followed, so I've put them back as they are as I'd say having only a drivers light is better than having only a passenger light... but as its getting darker earlier, need to fix this sooner rather than later.

Part number on the ballasts is 1 307 329 074. Looking on eBay, I can see a few and they're averaging around £85 each. Anyone know any other places I might be able to get one cheaper?

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