mishar

It might be that engineers are not ones to be blamed. To make things better they simply need more time and money guys are not happy about that. Luxury cars are made for the first owner. After three years price drop justifies cost of extended warranty and after that only way to own them is to have very small hands.

Oneplank

I have yet to find an extended warranty that covers bulb replacement, not that I have completed an exhaustive search.

aTOMic

Wow, there's three minutes of my life I'll never get back!

Oneplank

After a week I had to go back in and perform some corrective surgery. The bulb went out again. Turned out to be the wiring fell off the ignitor. I (hopefully) secured it with tie wraps.

I tried give myself some extra room by loosening and sliding out the headlamp. The back outboard torx screw would loosen, but I couldn't pull it out. The extra few millimeters was nice, but not enough.

A week is not enough time for my hands to recover from the first bulb replacement.

snapdragon

I thought something was wrong when you said it was a loose friction fit.
It should lock in solid when you turn the ignitor to lock it, an internal mechanism also locks the connector in place.

Oneplank

Thanks for the input. So something is wrong with either the male harness or the ignitor female end? I hope the tie wrap holds.

newaks

There`s a way through the wheel arch also and much easier!
Simply take off the wheel and then front half of the cover-much more space! I changed on my car that way and took about half an hour one side...

Oneplank

Well my problematic ignitor burned out (I guess they don't call it an ignitor for nothing.) It got hot and took the cheap bulb with it. Glad I didn't spend $100 on a replacement bulb. The housing smelled like an electrical fire as soon as I cracked it open. The base of the bulb was charred along with the socket of the ignitor. I was afraid that it also cooked the connector that plugs into the ignitor. The only way to replace that connector is to replace the entire housing. Before ordering a new housing (hella expensive) I decided to try try a new ignitor to see if the connector was still OK. Fortunately the ignitor seems to be common to several auto makes, so used units can be had for $20. Testing it outside the housing confirmed that the connector was OK.

To preform the surgery, I removed the front inner fender liner as newaks suggested. It's a little more work up front, but it is much easier to work on. I discovered that the wire for hold the bulb in place was bent out of shape and did not securely hold the bulb, I wouldn't know this unless I could see it, hence another reason to go through the wheel well. Since the ignitor is secured to the housing with four lugs and and the ignitor is further retained with a wire to keep the ignitor from from turning, the wire to secure the bulb is a little redundant. The connector on this ignitor seems to secure the wiring harness more securely than the last unit. No tie wraps required.

Lesson learned. You need to see what you are doing. Remove the fender liner to change the D2S bulb (plus it gives you more room). The passenger side may or may not require removal of the liner. I don't want to find out anytime soon.