hey guys, i am new here and this is my first post! i recently picked up an '09 g37 journey sedan with a funky left headlight. when i test drove it at night i noticed a weird 'hotspot' to my left but didn't consider it a dealbreaker. anyways when i brought her home and inspected further, i am going to guess my driver side projector reflector bowl is burnt. i took a video of me flicking the high beams on the wall of my parking spot and also tried to shoot some pics of the light pattern on the road at night. the youtube video maybe shows it best:












i've been pricing replacements for this driver side headlight, but i'm not sure i could justify paying $200+ on even just a used headlight unit with a hazy lens, only to fix a reflector bowl issue if i can possibly retrofit something better in both headlights for around the same price or a little bit more......

what would myg37 do????? 🤔

 

id buy a busted headlight (hopefully for cheap) with hopes of the internal part is still good and use this as an opportunity to paint the inside housing black and do whatever headlight mods that interests u lol

 

How do you know the bowl is burnt?

Looks more like a bulb that isn't installed/seated correctly

 

yes currently i have ebay alert emails letting me know of any new headlight units that pop up. hoping to find one under $200 in decent shape but exploring options in the meantime.

i also thought about the possibility of the bulb not seated correctly. i imagine i would be seeing a lot of vibration of the bulb moving around in the housing as im driving over rough areas but seems to be mounted pretty solid. i won't know until i get in there. i am the second owner of the vehicle and the car as a whole seems to be untouched for the most part so i am a little doubtful the HID system was ever cracked open. i do have some retrofit experience, and i think even with a bulb that isn't seated correctly, or off-center/what have you, i think we would still be able to see the cutoff line a little faint but still fairly clearly even if the light isn't being uniformly reflected (sort of like how the cutoff looks faint but clear when i flick on the high beams) . as soon as i have the tools and the space i will try to inspect further. will also try finding pics online of burnt bowl outputs

 

I'd say that's very likely just a bulb not seated right, there's also a good chance the clip that holds the bulb in place is broken which is why it's not seated.

 

ok i finally had a chance to further inspect at a buddy's house over the weekend. takemorepills and Epiphany were right on the money, the bulb wasn't seated right. Epiphany was double-correct in calling out a busted clip.

so unlike my first assumption, it looks like the HID system *was* touched. i dont think the first owner was aware that the bulb goes in first, then the ballast wire attaches behind it afterwards. when i turned the ballast wire to pull away and detach, the bulb came with it. either way, i was able to get the bulb seated in there correctly and it seemed to hold up fine during a long 6 hour drive back home even with a damaged bulb clip.

all is well for now


lol wat

busted!

all better!

 

so i tried posting a couple days ago to update everyone on this thread but it says a mod has to review it?? whats up with that

 

does anyone know of the part # or link to that dumb clip, I broke mine aswell

 

There isn't. Infiniti only sells the headlight as a whole assembly. The clip is part of the projector bowl so you're opening up the headlamp and replacing the projector assembly from another one. At that point you're much better off retrofitting in better internals to the headlight.