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Purchased my first Corvette, a 1990 ZR-1, a few months ago. A prior owner in 2009 upgraded headlights and foglights (maybe the turn signals and parking lamps too?) to HIDs. All lights worked great when I took ownership, and naturally, within a month one of the headlights sometimes wouldn't light up. I'd have to switch the lights off and on a couple times before it would light. Then a few weeks later it stopped lighting up at all.
The bulb is still good - I moved the bulb over to the working headlight and the bulb works fine.
I suspect maybe the ballast has gone bad, because I no longer hear it hum/buzz when the lights are on.
I'm not familiar with HIDs at all. Can I simply use any ballast that has the same power ratings? Are all plug connections on ballasts the same, or do different ballast manufacturers use different style plugs?
I know LEDs are the preferred technology now, but if I can get away with fixing just one light, as opposed to redoing ALL the lights, I'd prefer that.
Attached are pics of the headlight ballasts. These are mounted to the underside of each headlight lid.
Those look like standard Chinese ballasts that were reskinned to be a “higher” end brand. Any ballast $35+ will be reliable enough for the money.
the fact those HIDs lasted 12 years is amazing. Thats real quality. Usually never see these eBay/Amazon systems last more than a year, two years tops.
it would be ideal to run the same wattage on the new ballast but most if not all bulbs are rated 35/55W so the ballast only dictates how bright the light output is. 35 will run slightly cooler in physical temperature. Not sure if that really matters to you. I’ve always done 35W on my cars to prevent it from melting wiring harnesses.
PS once you get your new ballast take apart the old ones and see if they’re filled with sand.
Last edited by Avacado11; May 21, 2021 at 09:34 PM.
HID headlight experts? I need help
