head lights
gadget man
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,638
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check the bulb socket to see if the connector or wire is coming out.
had the same problem on a different car and the bulb tang was pushing the connector out the back of the socket.
do you have seperate headlight realays for left and right lows and highs total of 4 or do you have 2. if you have 4 then check the relay for lows on the bad side. I believe most cars are 2.
look at the bulb again and see if you can actually see both filaments in the bulb. one is for highs and one for lows, even new bulbs have fried before you get them.
if the filaments are ok and the soket is good I would stick a multimeter probe on the low beam contact in the socket ( with the bulb removed and the other probe to ground. if your wires are good you should see 12-14 volts. Make sure headlight switch is on or you won't see anything on the meter.
which contact is your low beam??? the black or black with whatever stripe should be ground ( on first test above dont use this as ground ) you have 2 other color wires one is highs one lows try both. if one has 0 or close to 0 volts then you have a bad wire connection or broken wire( probably between the other headlight and the one that doesn't work, check the same color wire on the one that works to see if that wire is loose coming from the good socket to the bad).
if you get 12-14 on both color wires then switch the multimeter to ohm's or the continuity setting ( makes a beeping noise when the probes are touched together ) put one probe on the ground wire from the socket and the other probe to bare metal on the body or your closest ground point for the electrical system. if you have no beeping ( on continuity ) or the display reads 1 then there is an open which means the ground wire hase a loose connection or a break.
if the one headlight works but other doesn't and your bulb is good chances are it is the power wire between the good bulb and the bad.
commonly the ground wire from the good is run into the bad and crimped to a second ground wire coming out of the bad. the power will come from the relays into the good and you will see a second wire crimped into the same connector that runs to the bad side. this means the good bulb has power and ground ( through the bad socket ) but the bad is only getting ground not power.
hope this isn't too confusing but I wanted to cover all possibilities that I could think of.
had the same problem on a different car and the bulb tang was pushing the connector out the back of the socket.
do you have seperate headlight realays for left and right lows and highs total of 4 or do you have 2. if you have 4 then check the relay for lows on the bad side. I believe most cars are 2.
look at the bulb again and see if you can actually see both filaments in the bulb. one is for highs and one for lows, even new bulbs have fried before you get them.
if the filaments are ok and the soket is good I would stick a multimeter probe on the low beam contact in the socket ( with the bulb removed and the other probe to ground. if your wires are good you should see 12-14 volts. Make sure headlight switch is on or you won't see anything on the meter.
which contact is your low beam??? the black or black with whatever stripe should be ground ( on first test above dont use this as ground ) you have 2 other color wires one is highs one lows try both. if one has 0 or close to 0 volts then you have a bad wire connection or broken wire( probably between the other headlight and the one that doesn't work, check the same color wire on the one that works to see if that wire is loose coming from the good socket to the bad).
if you get 12-14 on both color wires then switch the multimeter to ohm's or the continuity setting ( makes a beeping noise when the probes are touched together ) put one probe on the ground wire from the socket and the other probe to bare metal on the body or your closest ground point for the electrical system. if you have no beeping ( on continuity ) or the display reads 1 then there is an open which means the ground wire hase a loose connection or a break.
if the one headlight works but other doesn't and your bulb is good chances are it is the power wire between the good bulb and the bad.
commonly the ground wire from the good is run into the bad and crimped to a second ground wire coming out of the bad. the power will come from the relays into the good and you will see a second wire crimped into the same connector that runs to the bad side. this means the good bulb has power and ground ( through the bad socket ) but the bad is only getting ground not power.
hope this isn't too confusing but I wanted to cover all possibilities that I could think of.
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U.S.S.A Crew Member #001
U.S.S.A Crew Member #001
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2004
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Hey i had the same problem they both would work with the brights on but with the brights off the left one wouldnt. Checked wiring and fuses all fine so one day driving from st pete for a while with the brights on turned them off and it worked. But then it stopped lol.. So i put sylvania silverstar in there and im straight now no complaints
