cjperks

I was in the same boat a few months ago: it was the Xenon bulb in my case. I went down the same route as you as well; bought a new ballast, then looked at the procedure for replacing it. Turns out you need to get the headlight out to replace the ballast (nearside one at least) - no big deal right? To get the headlight out however, you needed to take the bumper off... That was going to be a massive pain, so I changed the bulb instead and it fixed the problem. I'd be wary of the cheaper Lucas bulbs btw, as the plastic flange is not as strong as the full metal construction. I snapped one of the electrodes when I was twisting the bulb back into position.