1999 Rt Hid Light Not Always Firing.

[1995SC4double0]

My friend has a 99 LS and usually when he turns the lights on, the right one doesn't come on. Sometimes it does. I keep telling his cheap !Removed! to take it somewhere because he's just going to wear out other parts. He'll turn the lights on and off, if that doesn't work, turn the car off and on. Sometimes I put my hand over the sensor on the passenger side by the windshield. Not sure if that helps or not.

Anyone else have this issue?

[pj8708]

My friend has a 99 LS and usually when he turns the lights on, the right one doesn't come on. Sometimes it does. I keep telling his cheap !Removed! to take it somewhere because he's just going to wear out other parts. He'll turn the lights on and off, if that doesn't work, turn the car off and on. Sometimes I put my hand over the sensor on the passenger side by the windshield. Not sure if that helps or not.

Anyone else have this issue?

In the title of your post you say HID, yet in the body you don't say if the headlight is HID or halogen. If its HID, check the ballast.

[1990LS400]

The sensor for the automatic headlights is on the far left of the dashboard so fondling a sensor on the right side isn't going to have any effect. Tell "cheap !Removed!" to switch the bulbs from right to left and see if the left headlight stops working. It's possible that one of the bulbs is dying and switching the bulbs is a zero cost way to find out.

Paul, in all these years I've never seen any 99 LS400's, or car forum threads about ones, that had halogen headlights. HID headlights were never "standard equipment" on the 98-00 but they seem to be on all 99-00 LS400's. Lots of 98 LS400's had halogen headlights, but as I reported a few times in the past, a Lexus dealer salesman told me early in the 1998 model year that he was having a hard time moving 98 LS400's with halogen headlights. HID was a $500 standalone option in 1998.

[pj8708]

The sensor for the automatic headlights is on the far left of the dashboard so fondling a sensor on the right side isn't going to have any effect. Tell "cheap !Removed!" to switch the bulbs from right to left and see if the left headlight stops working. It's possible that one of the bulbs is dying and switching the bulbs is a zero cost way to find out.

Paul, in all these years I've never seen any 99 LS400's, or car forum threads about ones, that had halogen headlights. HID headlights were never "standard equipment" on the 98-00 but they seem to be on all 99-00 LS400's. Lots of 98 LS400's had halogen headlights, but as I reported a few times in the past, a Lexus dealer salesman told me early in the 1998 model year that he was having a hard time moving 98 LS400's with halogen headlights. HID was a $500 standalone option in 1998.

This teaches me to do my research more thoroughly. So then. if these are HID's, is it a reasonable assumption that a bad ballast could be involved?

[1990LS400]

So then. if these are HID's, is it a reasonable assumption that a bad ballast could be involved?

OEM ballast failure is pretty rare. It's possible but it's more likely just a dying bulb. If the 99 LS in question was an early model and the headlight bulbs are original, they could be at over 13 years old. Phillips D2R HID bulbs last a long time (my original ones are at 11 1/2 years) but we don't know if "cheap !Removed!" has put lower quality junk high-K bulbs in his headlights.