2011 Vauxhall Insignia Elite Nav "Check Right Dipped Beam Lamp": Test ballast control module unit

[jtheophilus]

On the dashboard of my 2011 Vauxhall Insignia Elite Nav, message "Check Right Dipped Beam Lamp" is being displayed.

I have correctly fitted each of two brand new bulbs to the relevant connection and the light still does not work each time, so it is reasonable to rule out that the cause of the reported fault is the bulb.

The right low beam fuse is fuse 49, the left low beam fuse is fuse 50. I swapped fuses 49 and 50 around, but the left headlight continued to work and the right headlight continued to not work, so I think that rules out the fuse as the cause of the problem.

Can anyone suggest any other potential causes of this problem and therefore also anything else I can do to try to resolve this problem.

In lieu of any suggestion, at the moment I am hypothesising that the cause of this problem is a faulty ballast control module unit.

One way to test this hypothesis is to replace the ballast control module unit. However, a replacement ballast control module unit is not cheap, so this would be an expensive way to test whether the ballast control module unit is faulty, especially if I find out that the the ballast control module unit is not faulty.

Does anyone know of a way to check whether a ballast control module unit is faulty without replacing the unit and ideally without removing or even loosening the front bumper?

I would be very grateful for any suggestion posted.

[Vauxhall Owners Club]

Have you thought of swapping the ballast from one side to the other to prove the wiring and connections are okay.

 

[jtheophilus]

Yes, I had thought that one way of testing if a ballast is working is to swap it with the ballast on the other side. However, what is putting me off doing this is that it necessitates removing the front bumper off and then of course later re-attaching the bumper, which may be easy for some people to do, but not necessarily easy for me to do.

How would a garage test whether a ballast is working.

One garage suggested that the problem could be with the "exciter", although I have not managed to establish what an "exciter" is.

Also, a Vauxhall main dealer suggested that lights need resetting after fitting a new bulb, although they did not provide any more information, nor have I heard before of any requirement to have to reset lights after fitting new bulbs.

[Vauxhall Owners Club]

An exciter is a ballast resistor I would think but never heard it called that before

Also, I have never heard of resetting warning lamps for bulbs either as this would occur in the system when a new bulb is fitted

[jtheophilus]

Are you saying that an exciter is an integral part of a ballast, opposed to being a component external to the ballast, bulb, headlight unit, etc.?

[Vauxhall Owners Club]

This is a diagram of an HID setup (headlamp removed for ease of access) and it shows the ballast and the exciter which connects to the bulb