I head originally posted a topic asking for directions to replace the bulb myself which I decided not to do (and didn't get a response on this board). Took it to the dealer, they quoted me $200, and after waiting for an hour for the work to be completed told me it would be $400 ! The reason they gave me was that that the driver's side Xenon require a lot of work. I didn't have any more time to wait so I left. Why they didn't know that to begin with is another story entirely.

At the time my headlight had a blueish tint (drivers side only), now it is turning on and off at random and coming on at different settings then going off again after a minute or seconds. Still a different color / intensity than the other one. My question is, is there a chance that this may be the ballast vs. the bulb ?

 

Sounds like a bad igniter, which I assume is built into the ballast or just a bad ballast depending on how long it is staying on. Either way.... you should be able to either find an aftermarket DS2/1 compatible ballast or an adapter to take an aftermarket ballast and make it compatible with your OEM ds2/1 bulb.

I'm assuming DS1/2 is still the OEM standard for HID bulbs.

 

The ballast is covered under warranty (car is still under certified warranty), but bulb is not. One would hope the dealerships would see enough of these to repair them without having me wait an hour and then double the price on the bulb. $400 seems steep to replace a Xenon bulb.

 

I used the wrong word on the post. It is not flickering. Turns on light blue compared to the other light, then shuts off. When I change the headlight setting, same thing. Comes on light blue, then shuts off.

 

the bulb either works or it doesn't (can create arc or can not create arc). Kinda like a filament based bulb (filament is broken or not), it works or its burnt out. Now having said that it will turn out to be your bulb. Generally when and HID bulb is going bad, it slowly goes from blue/white in color to yellow, then orange/green when fully warmed up but this takes years. Most 00 A6's with stock HIDs are still blue/white so it takes a long long time for the bulb to go out. Not that it doesn't happen, **** happens, but it's not common.

An easy test would be to swap the driver and passenger bulbs and see if the problem persists.