Mégane II - Xenon headlight playing up!

[MéganeDynamique]

Hi guys,

My mum's 2.0 16v Meg is feeling the effects of these dark days, the poor headlights are never off!

Anyway, I noticed that the passenger side headlight just hasn't looked as bright lately, and just now as she was pulling into the drive, I noticed it's starting to flicker!!

Not good.. any worse and people will be pulling in thinking the police are now driving Mégane IIs! Now... how do I determine whether it's the xenon bulb at fault or the ballast? Either way it's guna be a real nightmare to get parts, so any experience from the few Mégane owners out there with xenon headlights would be brilliant.

Here's how they shone once...

[pfeek114]

the flicker could be power surges running through them
ive discovered that they draw more power than i though they did, radio works fine until i put lights on then i get a slight fuzz in the background
mine flicker when im parked at night idling with the lights on so i wouldnt worry to much about that

in terms of colour and brightness (which i can notice in your picture) it could just be the bulbs showing there life, mine are very slightly different
you could check the connections are ok

[MéganeDynamique]

Well the situation has worsened.... the light is now completely dead!

Investigations will begin at the weekend, thanks for the advice.

[MéganeDynamique]

Thanks, all sorted. I bit the bullet today and went for the mammoth task of swapping the bulbs to make sure it is the actual bulb at fault, and thankfully it was. For any Mégane Xenon owners coming across this, the bulb is an Osram Xenarc 66040 which has since been renamed with the part number 66240. They can be had for £40 on eBay, and that's a genuine bulb from a 100% trusted seller - I'm just about to order one.