Headlight Ballast

[John Stanley]

My driver's side low beam headlight goes out after about 10 minutes. When I leave it off for about 1/2 hour, and turn it back on, it again lights for about 10 minutes. The dealer says the ballast is shot, and wants $1600.00 to replace it. Has anybody else had this problem? Are there any other options?

Coxy

[IfNotMeThenWho]

My driver's side low beam headlight goes out after about 10 minutes. When I leave it off for about 1/2 hour, and turn it back on, it again lights for about 10 minutes. The dealer says the ballast is shot, and wants $1600.00 to replace it. Has anybody else had this problem? Are there any other options?

Coxy

I had the same problem last year with my 06' GS 300. At least you get 10 minutes, I had about 10 seconds. Unfortunately you may have to bite the bullet on this one and get an entire new headlight. They are a little cheaper than 1600. The Lexus Dealership told me that they would order and put it in for me for about 1300$, maybe a little less. It's worth it on the money you will spend trying to avoid it. I spent at least 600+ on Ebay buying headlight ballasts and had a mechanic put it in for me, only for the same thing to occur. Lexus has these cars set up so that when it goes bad with the headlight there is no repalacing one part, you have to get a brand new headlight from them. I guess this cuts all of the 3rd party competition out. You can go crazy and get your hopes up looking for alternatives, trust me. Maybe there is one, but you may end up spending more money in the end if you have to end up getting a new light anyway. I hope this advice helps.

[The G Man]

Your ballast is shutting down because of its protection circuits, either the ballast or the bulb is bad. I would replace the bad ballast and both bulbs. You can get them for much cheaper than $1600 on ebay.

[John Stanley]

My driver's side low beam headlight goes out after about 10 minutes. When I leave it off for about 1/2 hour, and turn it back on, it again lights for about 10 minutes. The dealer says the ballast is shot, and wants $1600.00 to replace it. Has anybody else had this problem? Are there any other options?

Coxy

I had the same problem last year with my 06' GS 300. At least you get 10 minutes, I had about 10 seconds. Unfortunately you may have to bite the bullet on this one and get an entire new headlight. They are a little cheaper than 1600. The Lexus Dealership told me that they would order and put it in for me for about 1300$, maybe a little less. It's worth it on the money you will spend trying to avoid it. I spent at least 600+ on Ebay buying headlight ballasts and had a mechanic put it in for me, only for the same thing to occur. Lexus has these cars set up so that when it goes bad with the headlight there is no repalacing one part, you have to get a brand new headlight from them. I guess this cuts all of the 3rd party competition out. You can go crazy and get your hopes up looking for alternatives, trust me. Maybe there is one, but you may end up spending more money in the end if you have to end up getting a new light anyway. I hope this advice helps.

What's really irritating about this is that I had the problem before the warranty expired. I told the dealer about it, who said that it would be checked as part of the inspection. The result of the check was that they reported verbally that they "could find no problem." The same result came after the next two regular service intervals while the warranty was in effect. Now that it's out of warranty, there is a written report on the 60k check that says the ballast is bad, and the whole unit will have to be replaced. They won't do it on warranty now because of too many miles. Lexus Customer satisfaction has offered to pay 1/2, but will not honor the warranty even though it was checked prior to expiry and they couldn't find anything wrong.

Coxy

[John Stanley]

How hard is it to install a new bulb?

[The G Man]

Maybe a 1/2 job if you know what u are doing, but you need to change ballast too. If Lexus is willing to pay half, let them do it.

[soo icey]

lol......buy a ballast form ebay...and hids are usally plug and play.....what is the problem????

[John Stanley]

:D An update on the bad driver's side headlight. The first Lexus dealer said that it was a bad ballast. Lexus Customer service offered to pay half the cost. But I complained that I had flagged the problem long before the warranty expired, and nobody could find anything wrong. I took it to another dealer, who found that the ballast was OK. It was just a headlight bulb. Lexus replaced it under a good will warranty. Problem solved.

Stan