Educate me about HID headlights

[5spdJunkie]

2005 allroad. Was in a fender bender a few weeks ago so now I have a new front bumper, drivers quarter panel and headlight housing. Now driver side headlight doesn't always fire up.

I'm assuming the bulbs and ballasts are original so I think this is unrelated to the accident. Could be wrong.

Which is the more likely culprit, bulb or ballast. Am I better off with aftermarket ballasts? I see people very happy with their custom setups.

[OGBULLYLOCDAWG]

swap the bulbs to the other side and see if the issue follows. If it does, time for new bulbs. If not, ballast may be the culprit.

[Liquid Smoke]

if it works sometimes, but not other times, it might be more likely to be the ballast, or could even be the wiring or something. i'd imagine if the bulb was bad it would just not work at all, or maybe be very low, etc.

[mithril]

Which is the more likely culprit, bulb or ballast. Am I better off with aftermarket ballasts? I see people very happy with their custom setups.

Ballasts or wiring is most likely unless the bulb was knocked loose in the ignitor by the impact in your fender bender. Aftermarket ballasts will be fine just don't go to 55w, there's not enough benefit to offset the reduction in bulb life and extra heat. You'll get a much bigger bang for your buck with better bulbs and/or better projectors if you want to increase output. Aftermarket ballasts will also not last as long as OEM, but that probably doesn't really matter too much on cars this age.

[5spdJunkie]

Thanks all.

There's a C5 OEM ballast available locally for $150, but I have no idea the age. Seems like a bad gamble.

[5spdJunkie]

Question. Does Valeo make the OE ballast? I work for a heavy duty truck parts distributor. We can get stuff at a steep discount but there's rarely much crossover in to the passenger car world. Something like this I might be able to find a ballast with the same specs