masonflint44

First of all, I want to thank niteshade for helping me get my airbag light cleared up!

Now, I have some weird problem with my drivers side headlight. I'm not exactly sure what is causing it. It kind of seems like maybe the bulb is loose and is moving inside the projector?? Seems to me the bulb wouldn't last very long that way though. The car does have HIDs, but I know the ballasts and bulbs have been replaced with something aftermarket. In fact, I'm not sure if the car originally had xenon or halogens. Any way to tell which housings I have? My first thought was that maybe the car has a self-leveling system for the headlights and maybe the drivers side is messed up? The passenger side is fine, but the drivers side its like a big hot spot much closer to the car than the passenger side and the hot spot moves sometimes. The hot spot grows and shrinks sometimes. At first I thought it corresponded to bumps in the road, but now I don't think it does. It really just seems random. Any help or ideas? Thanks in advance! Btw, these headlights look like a real pain to get to!!

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

You will need to validate if the car has HIDs or Halogens. It will be hard to tell externally because regardless of the type, Mazda provided the RX8 with projector style headlamps. There is a good chance that whoever had the car before you installed aftermarket HIDs. While this is a popular option for those who didn't get OEM HIDs, it is also not a very good one. HID bulbs will not fit properly in the Halogen (H7) socket. Even H7 style aftermarket HID's will not fit in the mazda headlamp without an appropriate spacer.

Some people like to jimmy up the clip to make the bulb stay in position, but this is risky as the bulb can come loose and start to melt the headlamp or worse.

With all that said, you first need to see if you have an OEM HID system.

You have a few options

- Tell us the trim of your vehicle if you know it. If not, what options came w/ your car (sunroof? leather? etc)

- Fastest way is to get down and look next to the rear driver side endlink. If you see the auto-leveling arm back there (it looks like a very thin endlink), then thats some good news.

Finally I will say this:

It is possible for cheap ballasts to cause a flickering ... which will look like a beam pattern shift (usually vertical [aka, the light pattern moves up and down a bunch]). If that is the case, you will simply need to replace the ballasts. But for your own sanity, I would check on the stuff I mentioned previously just so you know exactly what is in your car.

masonflint44

I don't know the trim. I'm pretty sure they are just aftermarket HIDs in halogen housings. It's a 6mt, no leather, no sunroof, no dsc, no bose sounds system, no fogs, pretty sure its just the base model 6 speed. Also, I've retrofitted a few projectors in headlights before, so I have a little bit of knowledge with HIDs and projectors, but this is new to me. It does look like the beam pattern changes, but I'm fairly confident that it isnt the ballast causing this. It isnt a flicker or a change of intensity; it is just a change in beam pattern. I can say for certain that there is a cutoff line from the projectors though (although a somewhat fuzzy one because of the weird beam pattern on the driver's side). The high beams are halogens and the little projector closest to the center (not sure, I guess it's a parking light?) is also halogen. I'm not sure what an endlink is or where I would look for it?

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

Based on the options, sounds like your assumption about them being non-HID housings is correct.

I would check to make sure that the previous owner properly installed the lights. Like I mentioned, the H7's on the RX8 require a spacer to seat properly. If you dont use a spacer, you would be hard pressed to keep the bulb from moving about.

Side Note: one tell tale sign of hid's in a halogen housing is that when the light projects, you are going to get a sharp triangular pattern on the ground directly in front of each headlight. The projected light would also be non symmetrical as the cutoff shield pattern doesn't do much to compensate for the HID return wire (would almost look like a 'black line' is being projected in front of you, typically at the bottom left corner)