Can someone help me figure out the difference between the ignitor and the ballast ? Anyone have pictures?

 

Maybe monitor your voltage when you're driving...if it goes up and down, there you go. I'd start looking at the battery and your electric system...maybe push in all your fuses, too?

Good luck, Buddy!

 

Maybe monitor your voltage when you're driving...if it goes up and down, there you go. I'd start looking at the battery and your electric system...maybe push in all your fuses, too?

No, it is not such a vague issue, and actually turns out to be a very commonly documented issue with E46
Common culprits are brittle wiring in the headlight system and/or a taillight ground.

 

There's a removable cap on the top of the headlight housing that you can use to change the xenon bulb and or inspect the internal wiring. The wiring insulation is known to break off and cause flickering issues. I used liquid tape on my damaged wiring and no problems since.

 

There's a removable cap on the top of the headlight housing

Not on my car. Do you have the kind like in the video?

 

I remember having this issue, unfortunately I never solved it with the xenons, I ended up converting to the halogen only lights. Brighter too

Sent from my IN2025 using Tapatalk

 

I remember having this issue, unfortunately I never solved it with the demons, I ended up converting to the halogen only lights. Brighter too

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The only way that halogens would have been brighter is if your reflector bowls were burnt.

 

Noticed the driver’s taillight was weak and flickering.
Swapped bulbs and still weak.
Might be a ground issue here.

Spent a literal hour trying to detach this clip (to hopefully clean corroded contact)
Gave up after an hour. Tried screwdrivers, pliers, picks, prying.
Plastic pigtail started to crumble, yet was firmly lodged in place.

Wiring clips easily the #1 nightmare in car DIY.
What are my options? Cut off the wires and buy a new pigtail harness?

 

Sounds like the assembly is toast. If you’re unable to free the connector, the only option would be to cut it off and solder on a new donor pigtail.

 

How do I get a new pigtail ? Closest salvage yard is 5 hours, another state.

 

Pulp Fiction GIF - Pulp Fiction Wolf - Discover & Share GIFs

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tenor.com

JK. Use car-part.com to find what you need and have them ship?

 

So can I suggest some new bulbs for your xenons? They have a life span, and just because they still work doesn't mean that it isn't time to replace them.

 

I removed the headlight to inspect the wires.
Turns out, I do not have any access holes like the one in the video.
Did they change styles at some point? This seems to be a dead end.
How can I inspect wires where they are not accessible ?

 

Like I said earlier, that problem is far more common in coupes and verts, and as such the light in the video is a coupe/vert one. Your sedan light has the bulb access on the back, remove that and see what you can see.

 

I removed the rubber dome in the rear and saw no wires inside.

 

Thanks for pointing the way. You are a huge resource to this forum!
Let me try to remove bulbs and get a closer look

 

Removed the bulbs and saw nothing.
Any peek of a wire looked brand new.
At a dead end so I put everything back and parked the car.

For my situation, I am going to try to re-ground splice the tail lights.
The #1 solution online for flickering headlights is taillight ground fix.

Flickering lights is a sign of a bad ground, usually in the tail lights.
It causes the light control module to keep resetting itself, and this causes the headlights to flicker.

Xenon headlights flickering:(

I have xenon headlights and they are flickering. When they flicker it is both of them, not just one side so that leads me to look somewhere other than a ballast. It is like they turn off and back on in a blink of the eye. If anybody has any insight it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

www.e46fanatics.com

 

I tried to do the tail light ground repair
Sadly, this has gotten more complex than it should have been, but I am inexperienced in electrical and soldering and splicing.

Splicing the brown wire was a real bitch.
I was afraid to outright cut the brown wire in half, so I tried to splice the brown wire with a utility knife.
I started cutting individual copper threads, so I stopped. I then used a quick splice connector.
There is a butt cap connector that keeps letting the wire fall out.

On the other end, on the ground plane bulb tray, I drilled a hole and used a self-tapping screw.
I finally managed to tighten the screw down over the other end of the wire.

The ground splice clearly works, and the bulbs are way brighter when the wire is connected.
I just need to figure out how to secure the wire into the quick splice butt cap.
I suspect its the wrong size and the wire is too small and thin.
But, the smaller size quik splice would not fit over the brown wire.

 

Finished the tail light ground splice today.
Let's see if this fixes the headlight issue.

To recap:
E46 headlights were flicking / turning on and off repeatedly.
Scary.

I noticed tail light was dim and flickering.

I read that the taillight ground wire gets corroded in the connector. High resistance.

Flickering lights is a sign of a bad ground, usually in the tail lights.
It causes the light control module to keep resetting itself, and this causes the headlights to flicker.

So, to bypass the corroded wire connector, I spliced the ground and directly connected it to the bulb tray ground path.

1. Yellow quick splice connector onto the brown ground (Size 10-12 gauge)
2. Pinch 16ga blue wire into yellow butt cap. Would not stay snug, if yanked, so I reinforced in place with duct tape.
3. Self tapping screw (18 x 1/2) drilled directly into ground path of bulb tray. (9/64 drill bit to start tap hole)
4. Tightened it over the blue wire (10mm screw head)

Once I added the additional ground path, the bulb lit up way brighter.
Hopefully this solves the headlight issue.

 

So, did this work? I'm having the same issue.
Cheers.

 

When I have a headlight that's aged out so badly it won't stay lit, it only affects one side or the other.
It also lights the 'headlight' warning indicator on the dash.

Just a data point.

t
d2s or not d2s

 

Did the passenger side tail light using the same method above.

 

it did the job ? the flickering stoped?

 

Yes, the tail light ground fix eliminated the headlight flickering