My right headlight bulb flicks on for a quarter second and turns off. No headlight notification on the dash. Is it possible that the ignitor or ballast is in fact bad?

 

The bulb is probably bad....although I am new to this forum I have had quite a few cars with factory HID's in them and I have rarely seen a ballast go out prematurely....I would put money on the bulb being bad.

 

Switch your passenger and driver side bulbs and see if the problem remains on the same side or if it goes to the other side. If it moves it's a dead/dying bulb, if it remains it's likely the ballast or igniter, which I'd assume should be warranty.

 

Dang... I thought it was normal for HID's to last like 10 years.... Not two.

 

The good news is bulbs are pretty cheap.

It's possible you got a bad bulb. The dealer might swap it out for free if your nice.

Either way, just get it replaced before the police notice its out.

 

If they make you pay for the bulb do not buy it from the dealership.

They charge 200 for EACH bulb.

You can buy oem bulbs that are 4300k for $95/pair from the retrofit source.

Or you can buy morimoto xb 5500k bulbs for $50/pair and they will be whiter compared to oem bulbs

 

Crossroads Infiniti South (Apex, NC) replaced the bulb for free. Free car wash and vacuum too! They said they knew that 2 years was way preemptive for a xenon bulb. Just thought I'd let others know my followup.

 

Great that they replaced the bulb free of charge. A free bulb isn't the cheap giveaway like it was in the 80s. Not sure I would have been happy with them washing my car, but hey, saved some money.

 

It's a warranty item. Same thing happened to my Acura & the dealer replaced it free. Had to remove bumper.