Replaced Xenon headlight and it worked for 5 minutes (and other weirdness)

I have a bunch of weirdness with my passenger side headlight and side marker light. It started with a fast blink when I turned on the right turn signal. Replaced the side marker bulb and the fast blinking stopped but I only had a steady on light in the side indicator and no blinking with the new bulb. Then I noticed the passenger side headlight was out. I replaced it with a Philips D2S Standard Authentic Xenon HID bulb and it was working beautifully but after 5 minutes it was out again and wouldn't come back on. The only other clues I have is that the connector for the side indicator bulb looks rusty and corroded despite never seeing any moisture in the side indicator housing. Can anyone give advice on what is going on?

Without a picture we can only speculate. Any chance it is dielectric grease in the connector? Some brands could give the appearance of rust color. I have experienced all kinds of wonky and unexpected lighting behaviors if this connection is not right. Lights not working or working incorrectly in both the front and rear of the car, amazingly. I like to use Deoxit to clean electrical connections. I'd clean the electrical connections well with Deoxit, following directions on the can, then ensure that the connector is firmly and correctly seated on both headlights. Of course, verify that the fuses and relays are functioning correctly as a part of normal troubleshooting and issue isolation. I am not sure how to test the ballasts with a multimeter. You can use a multimeter to verify power and ground inputs. I wouldn't mess with the output side myself. I have swapped the xenon ballasts from side to side in my land cruiser to troubleshoot. Separately you can swap the bulbs side to side (do only bulbs or resistors, not both in the same troubleshooting step). Hint: wear gloves and do not touch the glass part of the bulb. If you swap ballasts or bulbs to the opposite sides and the problem follows the ballast or bulb, that is an indication that that the relevant failed component may be the issue. Oh, and last of all, the light on the front corners is a corner marker light, not a turn signal. It doesn't blink, unless someone has hacked it to do so. It should light up solid when the lights are on.

I was having similar problems. New bulb on passenger side works fine, most of the time. Then would turn off without warning. Last week I took it out to give everything a good look see. What I found astounded me. All three wires were almost devoid of any insulation! It had dry rotted so bad that it would just crumble when you touched one of the wires. Re-wrapped with electrical tape and it seems to work fine now. I need to remove the other light and check to see if it has the same issue. (2002 C2)

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Oh I see now. I just checked and neither side blink. Ok so the fast turn signal must just be from the headlight not getting current.

The ballasts seem to be good for about 10 years.. Yours may have had a good run. Ballast Flickering and turning off vs Bulb dimm and inconsistent slow to get to full brightness occasionally turn of but come back on..

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Did you check the rear turn signal bulbs? You can get a more rapid blinking if either the front bulb or the rear bulb is out on one side. Since you know the front is new and lighting up, verify that the rear turn signal on that same side of the car is also good.

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Fast blinking turn signals are usually related only to turn signal bulbs or wiring problems and not usually related to a headlight issue. Different circuit.

Both the front and rear bulbs are blinking... just they are blinking fast when the headlight is out. ‾\_(ツ)_/‾

Actually no. I take it back. Just tested again and both the front blinker and headlight is out and only the rear is fast blinking. Ok so I'm going to check the wires aren't losing insulation like happened to Southern Man.

Not sure about your headlight but the right rear blinking fast is because the right front isn't blinking.

I took the unit out again and the wires and harness look good. No loss of insulation. I put the lamp unit back into place and the headlight came on and the turn signal was blinking normally. I drove it for 15 minutes and after a few minutes the headlight went out and the front signal no longer blinked. So then I tried applying pressure while leaving the headlight switch on: You Tube

Tony, seems like this might be a connection problem related to seating of the headlight. This sometimes happens because the removal tool from the tool kit starts to loose its bite. Seat the headlight with a good 5mm socket. Be sure to tape it to the extension so that it doesn't fall into the abys. You should feel a more positive lock into position. GLWS

Are you using the tool to get the final latch? Painfully long video: You Tube Skip to 5:17 for a good view of the mechanism and 14:28 for an example the positive final latch.

Check the "litronic socket" as well (the blue part with the yellow clip) - they tend to break which leaves you with a wonky connection (which seems to be the problem...).

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+1 I'd add, examine the headlight enclosure tray. Mine was cracked. Results - the female connector wasn't mating properly with the headlight's male connector when it was slid in. In other words, the male wasn't mounting on the female correctly. Call it sex confusion.

2 things to check if you have a Canadian car check the DTRL relay just above the fuse box. They tend to create strange problems like this. If you have a US car check your headlight switch they tend to overheat sometimes and you can loose certain circuits as well. If you have a 996.1 there is also a litronic control unit in the frunk which may cause an issue with the headlights but would have no effect on the signals

Update : Fixed I watched the long video posted by cds72911 again and especially the part at the end where you hear the loud pop and he indicates that means it is locked. I wasn't getting the loud pop. For reasons I don't understand mine would not lock and if I continued rotating counter clockwise it would eventually start lifting the light unit out of the body again. I tried one last time and carefully watched each peg to make sure it was guiding into the correct spot and finally got the loud pop with a short turn. Now it's been several days and all lights are functioning.

Awesome!

Great!

Sometimes difficult electrical problems are the easy things!