Ballast replacement

[Strictly_Mad]

Hi all hope you and yours are well,

I have looked on the forums, but cannot find the problem I have.

My bi xenon headlight was out on my offisde light assembly unit and when sent to the garage for MOT, they replaced and the bulb blew straight away.

I have been told that for the whole light assembly unit it is up to £750 or I could try replcing the ballast as that is a common fault on Fords with bi xenon lights.

So i took out the light assembly unit within 2 mins and was confronted with a nut that I have not seen before on the ballast unit (photo attached). I assume Ford do this so people have to pay for a whole new unit, which I do not have the money to do.

Any help on how to remove and then reeplace the nuts on the ballast unit would be appreciated. Also any places you all use to buy ballasts, bulbs, etc would be good too.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[unofix]

It's an automotive industry standard "female torx" bolt.

You can buy a cheap socket set on eBay for under £7

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=275000658381&_sacat=0

Also brand new Ballast part 044663   price £24.56

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=134108484903&_sacat=0

 

[troy45]

If you think the ballast has failed try swapping it with the one on the other headlamp and see if the fault moves to the other lamp. 
 

[unofix]

25 minutes ago, troy45 said:

If you think the ballast has failed try swapping it with the one on the other headlamp

I was going to suggest that, but the OP said they replaced the lamp and if blew immediately. Moving the possibly defective ballast over to the good headlight might cause that lamp to fail if there is a fault.

It would be safer to take the good working ballast and move it over to the failed headlight after first replacing the lamp with a new one. If the light then works with out a problem then I'd have to say whilst not a 100% conclusive I'd probably assume at that point the other ballast was indeed faulty.

[troy45]

11 hours ago, unofix said:

I was going to suggest that, but the OP said they replaced the lamp and if blew immediately. Moving the possibly defective ballast over to the good headlight might cause that lamp to fail if there is a fault.

It would be safer to take the good working ballast and move it over to the failed headlight after first replacing the lamp with a new one. If the light then works with out a problem then I'd have to say whilst not a 100% conclusive I'd probably assume at that point the other ballast was indeed faulty.

Fair point, I’d missed some of the details there where swapping the suspect ballast may have then affected the good lamp. 
 

Helpful to see that aftermarket ballasts are available, hopefully same for mk2.5 ones - I replaced my lamps last year but was put off by OEM prices so reused the original ballasts. 
 

 

[Strictly_Mad]

Ah thanks for the advice all. Seen a ballast online for £36 so will get that. Found an attachment which takes off the nuts. Thanks. 

[unofix]

29 minutes ago, Strictly_Mad said:

Seen a ballast online for £36 so will get that.

What was wrong with the ballast for £24.56 ? 🤔

[Tool1312]

On 2/16/2023 at 4:30 PM, Strictly_Mad said:

Hi all hope you and yours are well,

I have looked on the forums, but cannot find the problem I have.

My bi xenon headlight was out on my offisde light assembly unit and when sent to the garage for MOT, they replaced and the bulb blew straight away.

I have been told that for the whole light assembly unit it is up to £750 or I could try replcing the ballast as that is a common fault on Fords with bi xenon lights.

So i took out the light assembly unit within 2 mins and was confronted with a nut that I have not seen before on the ballast unit (photo attached). I assume Ford do this so people have to pay for a whole new unit, which I do not have the money to do.

Any help on how to remove and then reeplace the nuts on the ballast unit would be appreciated. Also any places you all use to buy ballasts, bulbs, etc would be good too.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi, just looking at this post as my passenger side Xenon isn't working so am looking at getting a replacement ballast unit.

Do you have to take the headlight out to gain access to the ballast unit and is it an easy enough job or do I need a garage to do it

[unofix]

1 hour ago, Tool1312 said:

Hi, just looking at this post as my passenger side Xenon isn't working so am looking at getting a replacement ballast unit.

Have you tested or replaced the Xenon lamp ?  I'm guessing not otherwise your question wouldn't be needed.

1 hour ago, Tool1312 said:

Do you have to take the headlight out to gain access to the ballast unit and is it an easy enough job or do I need a garage to do it

See photo in the original post by @Strictly_Mad which shows the position of the ballast.