[Mastermixlee]

Ok so to cut a long story short, after forking out for a new d1s bulb, then finding water ingress had blown the ballast and the bulb was fine, I am now looking at solutions for the ballast. Theres alot of different types out there which all show the same number on the front but actually have very small differences depending on year of car, which apparently then wont work. I have got a price of £261 (being the cheapest new) for a replacement ballast....which is a joke.

I have considered fitting aftermarket ballasts as would work out ALOT cheaper to get entire kit with bulbs than fitting just one OEM ballast!!!!

However, I have not fitted any aftermarket HIDS onto a car which has already got HID lights from factory. The wiring connector that goes to the OEM ballast has 4 Pins, where as the aftermarket ballasts have only 2 wires. The headlights are Bi-xenon as factory...so again not sure how that would work aftermarket ballast wise, and what fitting/bulb I would need to get.

Hoping someone could help here

The car is a 56 plate BMW 335i e92 with bi-xenons from factory.

I have replaced halogen bulbs for HIDS on many cars in the past, however they seem alot more straight forward to go from halogen to aftermarket HIDS than it does replacing OEM xenon systems!

Help Please

[Kassim786]

Just bite the bullet and get the proper ballast mate sometimes mixing after market ballast with different bulbs can cause it to over hear, melt or even change beam colour

[Mastermixlee]

I was going to change whole ballast and bulbs if going the aftermarket route.

Just after this one failing I have read up and apparently isnt uncommon for the ballasts to go. So am a bit reluctant to change the another oem for 261+VAT knowing that the other ballast may go wrong not too far in the future. (for some reason around 50,000 miles seems to be when the ballasts go wrong most often....odd)

Does anyone know what the 4 wires do going to the ballast. Obviosuly 1 would power and 1 would be earth, but not sure what the other 2 wires are for?

@Joshua - any ideas? I saw you post something a long while ago when thinking about going double projector on your setup?

[Alex.J]

Originally Posted by Mastermixlee

I was going to change whole ballast and bulbs if going the aftermarket route.

Just after this one failing I have read up and apparently isnt uncommon for the ballasts to go. So am a bit reluctant to change the another oem for 261+VAT knowing that the other ballast may go wrong not too far in the future. (for some reason around 50,000 miles seems to be when the ballasts go wrong most often....odd)

Does anyone know what the 4 wires do going to the ballast. Obviosuly 1 would power and 1 would be earth, but not sure what the other 2 wires are for?

@Joshua - any ideas? I saw you post something a long while ago when thinking about going double projector on your setup?

Power and earth in, power and earth out surely? Thats your '4' wires.

[Mastermixlee]

Originally Posted by Alex.J

Power and earth in, power and earth out surely? Thats your '4' wires.

It has 4 wires going in on a 4 pin plug. But then there's a separate connector coming out of the ballast which connects to the bulb. So wouldn't be the power and earth going back out again.