Arrwin

Hey guys,

I am experiencing an annoying intermittent headlight flicker on the passenger side. Seems as if something is loose because it will go off/on when it hits a bump. I have the Xenon Catz upgrade that was installed by the PO. It's been over 2 yrs and never had this problem until recently. I took the headlight and and examined for a possible loose bulb or connection, but only found that the metal spring that keeps the bulb in place partly snapped off. I was able to hook the spring back up so that the bulb is tight, however the flickering still exists intermittently. I've removed the light again to make sure that the metal spring is still in place where I left it and it is. That doesn't seem to be the issue, but I can be wrong of course.

There is also a contact that is attached to the car itself that touches the headlight assembly when sliding the light back in which appears to be a bit loose. I haven't taken the driver's side light out yet to compare (which I probably should, before asking here).

Anyone else experience this "flickering"? It's pretty annoying, esp. for the cars in front of me I would think!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

gordo993

Try checking the connection where the headlight plugs into the wiring harness in the headlight bucket. Mine is cracked preventing a good connection. The fix - remove front wheel and fender liner, reach up from the back side of headlight, and press on the connector (against headlight housing) to ensure it is plugged in and making a good connection. Then, only remove that headlight when absolutely necessary, as it is a pain in the butt to get it properly re-connected!

fbfisher

This could also be due to the poorly designed housing and clip that holds your bulb in place. Your dealer has a retro-fit for the clip attachment, but these fail too, causing your symptom. Continued replacement of the clip is one (cheap) solution, a new (and expensive) housing is the other.

Arrwin

Thanks for all the suggestions already!

Any part #s available for the clip?

geolab

This should remain loose.

I had this experience with original litronic twice a couple of years ago,
give the headlight a dry slap when it does that, and it works. yes I am serious.

grmnxtc

Headlamp bracket repair kit

000 043 204 28 about $3 a pop. (Pelican shows $2.41 each)

Dudley

My bet is you have a bad lamp connector. Same thing happen to my Catz lamps. I replaced both with the Vertex Lamps. In hind sight, I should have just repaired the connector.

Arrwin

Thanks!

Hi Dudley...i'm assuming this is the connector in the lamp assembly? Is there some type of part # for this?

Dudley

My problem was in the connector that is missing in the photo.
Hope this helps. I do not have a part number for the connector.

96C4S

I had the same problem was also the clip that holds the bulb it was so loose it caused some arching btween the clip and the bulb

Arrwin

Great! Thanks for the info. Pics does wonders.

Arrwin

Finally had some time this weekend to look at the flickering problem with a friend. Miraciously, he had an extra Catz ignitor and ballast, so thinking it was the ignitor we replaced it with his. Still doesn't work. We then swapped the ballast with no luck. Next, we removed the wiring harness connector off of it's bracket housing. We plugged the connector into the headlamp connection and voila...it works! The wobbly connector probably wasn't mating correctly or even at all with the headlight.

We left the connector off it's bracket so that I can drive at night, but will this pose a problem? What's the significance of the bracket if it's going to be wobbly anyways?

gordo993

It's probably broken like mine. The connector has a clip on the top and one on the bottom that connect it to the bracket. My bottom clip is broken, thus a wobbly, poor fitting connection.

kkim

I had the same flickering that I traced down to the connector being the problem. Like you, I took off the connector on the bracket side and plugged it directly into the headlight... problem gone. On closer inspection of the pins in the connector, I found one to be pushed back a bit... just enough, I guess, that it would make intermittent contact when the headlight was slid back into place.

Try examining the pins on both sides of the connector to make sure they have not been pushed back a bit.

Good luck!!