Failure mode for Xenon HID lamps?

[Brett Dikeman]

On Sep 13, 2006, at 11:11 AM, Duane, Andrew wrote:

> One of my HID headlights started flickering last night, and then went
> off for a while. It's back on now, and all seems OK. I need to  
> check out
> all the wiring harnesses now that it's daylight, but I'm wondering  
> what
> the failure mode for HIDs is. Regular headlights, they just stop
> working. Anything different about these?

HID lights in projectors (for example) start a quick varying light  
intensity change as they reach end-of-life.  It's initially subtle  
enough that you'd probably never notice it staring at even a blank  
wall since the car has two headlights.

If it's not too much of a pain, just swap the bulbs and see if the  
problem migrates.

Maybe that squirrel that took out your headlight washers years ago  
decided he'd move up in the world? :-)

Brett