Headlight mystery help

08 Escalade. My driver side headlight was going in and out and finally stayed out. I changed the ballast with an oem one and drivers side headlight worked but pass now stopped working. Turned truck on and off a few times and both worked for about a week and now the drivers side is back out

Is there some sort of known issue with these trucks that causes problems like this? Also, anyone happen to know where the headlight harness ground is? I have a feeling it’s a headlight harness issue and would like to rule out the ground first

Doug118 said:

08 Escalade. My driver side headlight was going in and out and finally stayed out. I changed the ballast with an oem one and drivers side headlight worked but pass now stopped working. Turned truck on and off a few times and both worked for about a week and now the drivers side is back out

Is there some sort of known issue with these trucks that causes problems like this? Also, anyone happen to know where the headlight harness ground is? I have a feeling it’s a headlight harness issue and would like to rule out the ground first

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most HId issues are ground/power/ballast. and last culprit is the bulb
grounds should be on the left & right bottom side of the radiator support (you have to to pull the bumper cover off to access
not sure if this video is any help or not

Wild conclusion. I never in a million years thought it would be a fuse with the way the lights were going on and off originally then worked fine for a while. Well I was bored and checked the fuses. Both look fine but I NEVER trust how a fuse looks. Decided to switch them to see if the problem went to the opposite side.. somehow both headlights now work with no issue (so far)

Probably not the fuse. More than likely the fuse board. Sometimes they’re not torqued down enough from the factory and cause grounding issues. Other times the backside becomes corroded and the entire board needs to be replaced.

Glad you tackled it for now. I’ve got a buddy with an 07 that is currently getting about 12-14 months out of each bulb / ballast assembly. Wonder if there’s a supply chain issue or counterfeit part infiltration somewhere. HID bulbs should go up to 10 years. The ballasts I canabalized out of a Infinity SUV on another vehicle are pushing 20+ years.

Doug118 said:

08 Escalade. My driver side headlight was going in and out and finally stayed out. I changed the ballast with an oem one and drivers side headlight worked but pass now stopped working. Turned truck on and off a few times and both worked for about a week and now the drivers side is back out

Is there some sort of known issue with these trucks that causes problems like this? Also, anyone happen to know where the headlight harness ground is? I have a feeling it’s a headlight harness issue and would like to rule out the ground first

Click to expand...

I know my buddy at my alignment shop changed out the actual plug for the headlights multiple times on this one work truck from corrosion might be worth looking into?

petethepug said:

Probably not the fuse. More than likely the fuse board. Sometimes they’re not torqued down enough from the factory and cause grounding issues. Other times the backside becomes corroded and the entire board needs to be replaced.

Glad you tackled it for now. I’ve got a buddy with an 07 that is currently getting about 12-14 months out of each bulb / ballast assembly. Wonder if there’s a supply chain issue or counterfeit part infiltration somewhere. HID bulbs should go up to 10 years. The ballasts I canabalized out of a Infinity SUV on another vehicle are pushing 20+ years.

Click to expand...

If I have another issue and messing with the fuses doesn’t fix it, I’m going to switch to LED’s and run all new wiring to a different switch. I’m back to working 60 hour weeks so I really don’t have time to keep pulling the bumper and messing with chasing down electrical issues

God Bless 60 Hr weeks B4 Christmas. You’ll hear me comment on LED retrofit lamps and the issues they cause with the 5v canbus system creating fake DTC codes and bizarre side effects in other systems.

I am happy to report one referral on LED aftermarket lamps used in our 07 VW Beetle that triggered zero codes and have been a true retrofit without side effects.

The fix to all the canbus errors was adding a 12v microfan to each led retrofit lamp to emulate the load that a HID bulb would draw. When put behind a projector bulb in the wifeys convert beetle it 150% fixed the lumen deficiency like a miracle bulb was dropped in.

Not sure which bulb to use on an Esky, but this is the brand …

Ursprung 2024 Upgraded H7 LED... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3L5RLVG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share