Headlight Ballast Replacement

andgrob · December 21, 2009

I can pick up a new "xenon" ballast replacement for $80.00 plus shipping. Good price? Also, is "xenon" a name brand or for a specific bulb or hid? Will a xenon ballast adequately replace the factory ballast. Hid/bulb is factory. Help!

cduluk · December 22, 2009

So wait, your Rx330 has the factory HID lights, and one of the ballasts is blown?

You can't just get any average ballast to replace it. Well, you could- just the wiring would be different and the "warm-up time" would differ from the other headlight. It wouldn't be worth it.

Ballasts aren't all the same. Some take longer to light-up the bulb to max brightness (the Lexus factory DENSO ballasts are some of the quickest). So if you had one headlight with a "DENSO" ballast and the other with let's say a "M a t s u s h i t a" ballast (with spaces because the forum bleeps out the letters s h i and t), upon start-up, one will look purple and the other blue, etc. until it was fully warmed up.

Have you had the headlights apart yet? Have you done any testing to confirm it is the ballast that's blown?

If you've opened them up then you probably know how everything's wired in there. Just search eBay for a Rx330/350/400h Denso ballast, you should be able to get one for <$100 or so. It must come from the 04-09 RX as the Denso ballasts for other models may have different wiring.

And I don't think they're side specific...

SKperformance · December 22, 2009

Throw an aftermarket ballast in with an adapter to fit the OEM bulb and be done , who cares about warm up time when it is in fractions of seconds .

cduluk · December 22, 2009

The factory DENSO slim ballasts are the only ballasts that will fit in the housing between the AFS motor and the bottom. The ballast fits into the bottom cover, and there isn't any room between it and the motors... I just checked as i have a set of Rx headlights for a retro i'm working on...

command · August 16, 2010

The factory DENSO slim ballasts are the only ballasts that will fit in the housing between the AFS motor and the bottom. The ballast fits into the bottom cover, and there isn't any room between it and the motors... I just checked as i have a set of Rx headlights for a retro i'm working on...

Yes RX330 is silm ballast like this

http://www.oemxenonpart.com/oemballast/Lexus-RX330-Xenon-Ballast.jpg