E90 N54 ballast or bulbs? Thoughts? Pic inside...

[Mightbaal]

Ok so I am not sure what is more common and how I can even check. I know i had an old Infinity that the ballast was part of the headlight that was shot and they wanted $2000 for a new headlight (they turned like the BMW with the steering wheel). Until I seen it was screwed on and ebay helped me lol. But with these are the ballasts more likely to go or the bulbs? How do I even test it?

 

[Mightbaal]

OEM bulbs are expensive so it would be nice to test what is wrong alot of times it is the ballast on past cars that went bad. Dont want to throw hundreds at it on bulbs and waste money.

 

[SlowE93]

I say bulbs

 

[Jeffman]

How many miles? Original owner? Garaged or kept outside?

 

[Itsbrokeagain]

The few times I had to get into these headlights, it was the ballast that took a dump. Kind of a pain to change as you have to pull the bumper and remove the headlight (ballast is on the side next to the radiator)

 

[Rob09msport]

Usually the bulb will start giving off a more purple color as it starts to get closer to dying

 

[Blaster3500]

Swap bulbs and you will have your answer