I have been fooling with this headlight on my 08 g37s for the last few hours. I was getting a flickering bulb on start up that fails to light, so assumed a ballast. Been through two ballast now and both ballast do the same thing. Bulb barely flickers and won't light.
it wasn't until my last step I looked at the bulb, the center area right at the bulb is dark brown. Now conventional wisdom would tell me this is in fact a bulb issue, but has anyone ever heard of a failed hid bulb trying to light.
I know this is symptom of a ballast, but having replaced it twice, I doubt it's a ballast. Are there any other areas in the light system that can fail?

 

Turns out it was the bulb, so yes, a bad bulb can flicker just like a bad ballast. Replaced the bulb and everything works again.....

 

In the future, just swap the bulb or ballast in question with the opposite side and the outcome will tell you what the problem is.