1997 camry no headlights

[sony1998]

My 97 Camry le v6 was running just fine until about 4 hours ago. Please help me out before I go running off to the dealer without any information as to what my problem might be. Hear goes-- Got into the car started her up and went to turn on the headlights and they did not go on. The car seems to run fine. I drove her home with an escort from a friend. I tried the light knob on the stalk several times and no headlights lights. The signals worked ok both front and back.The 3rd break light works ok but all 4 doors would not lock when the lock on either the remote was pressed or when the lock switch on the inside was pressed. When I powered down the driver side rear window after I stopped pressing the window switch I would get a beeping chime in the dash like a door was ajar but no light came on indicating such and no doors were ajar. If I pulled back the light stalk the head lights would come on (not known if they are high beams or low beams). If I released the stalk (back to the center position) the front headlights would go off. If I pressed the light stalk forward for brights nothing would come on. The hazard flashers work ok. When I hit the alarm button the alarm arms but the doors do not lock. I had to go around and lock the doors manually then arm the alarm for the night. I do not have lights on the dash board, only various indicator lights.
This does not seem like just a fuse to me. Its something very strange because of the doors and lights not working and the chiming when the rear window is powered down.

Please help:confu sed:

Thanks in advance to all who chime in.

Mark in Maryland

[sony1998]

Anybody have any thoughts on my problem??

Thanks

Mark

[toddub]

Sounds like a blown fuse, relay or a bad headlight switch. I would check the simplist things first. Check both fuse boxes, under the dash and under the hood first.

[sony1998]

Thanks toddub for the suggestion. I went and checked the fuses under the hood and inside the cars as well and they are fine.

I think this is something more than a fuse issue because of the light, chime and door lock issues. Somehow they are all interconnected to fail all at the same time.
I have searched around the forum and many people have problems with lights, doorlocks, and other things not working properly but none talk about headlights not working.

Anyone out there want to give this a shoot????

I would love to know.

Mark

[Mike Gerber]

I'll take a wild guess. It sounds like the car thinks the driver's door is open. If you leave the headlights on and shut off the car and open the driver's door, the headlights should turn off. Check the driver's door open and close switch for being loose or for being rusty. Make sure the switch can be pushed in freely. Again this is only a wild guess, assuming all fuses and relays are working properly. It could also be a problem with the light stalk within the steering column.

Mike

[sony1998]

Thanks for the response Mike but I still think something is going wrong besides the door switch. That would not explain why when I roll down the rear driver side window that a chime goes off in the dash and it would also not explain why my door locks will not lock when I arm my alarm. Is there something that controls all three of those items since they all started to fail at the same time. In your post and toddub you mentioned checking on relays. Not sure where to start to check for that.

Please point me in the right direction.

thanks
Mark

[Creeps228]

You have a blown fuse. Look for a small fuse box near the headlights. Its a small one that holds the fuses for the low beam on the headlights. Check those, about your other problems I have no idea. Best of luck.

[sony1998]

Thanks creeps. I will check the fuses you mentioned.

As far as the other issues, there has got to be something that controls all three or more of the items that are not acting correctly. For them to go all at the same time and at different parts of the car they must all feed back to some common point.

I just am not familiar enough with cars and I really don't want to get raked over the coals by the dealer if its a relay or something simple that can be changed.

Let's all keep thinking about this problem and hopefully someone has some experience with this issue as a whole.

Thanks again everyone.

Mark