alright first of all, i'm trying to help a friend, he has an 87 corolla
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here's his exact quote- "the registration says its a 2S and the owner said corolla. i've got a bright switch and all that. the problem is when i flip the switch over to the lights they just open, then when i put it on bright they cut on. even the bright light on the dash is on, they just are way too dim."
I'm going to look at the car this coming weekend but i wanted to have an idea of what to look for, where the light grounds are and all that stuff, or if this is a common problem how it can be solved, new light harness? anyways it sounds like a ground problem to me or maybe an old switch/relay. once i again i've never worked with a car like this before so any tips/what to look for will be greatly appreciated.
haven't looked at the car yet, but i imagine it's similar to the way mine work, flip the switch and the lights pop up and turn on right? or they're supposed to when they pop up, but his don't the only way they come on is by turning on the high beams but they're not even bright. so his lightbulbs are working cuz they come on, it's just they're not as bright and he doesn't have bright lights.
The high beam filament would be separated from the low beam filament, either one can burnt out without affect the other's operation. It is possible that the lights have poor ground connection if they are not very bright on high beam.
Well, will probably need a little more information to go by.
that's just it tho, i'm going to look at the car this weekend, see what i can figure out, but that's the only thing that's wrong with it, someone else mentioned the lightswitch itself going bad, i guess we'll just wait and see.
so anyways, i went looked at the car today, quite a design for the light switch i kinda like it haha (idk if they're all the same, but the round knob dial type) anyways the drawings were a bit missleading, so everything was working fine, except he didn't know that the bright lights were controlled by the blinker lever...took me about 1.5 minutes to figure out what was wrong with it haha..anyways so that problem is fixed, now the only problem is very dim lights, his brights were already dim...dimmer than just regular headlights...you think new light bulbs will do it?
man i fell in love with that car..except for it being an auto, but it looks good, it's the 2 door coupe body style, with what seemed draglite wheels (something similar), the car had just been painted black and the lights where tinted...not bad for it being a one owner car and previous owners where an older couple very clean, only downside is tranny is a bit messed up and it's hard to go into gear, and the engine is very weak, it took forever to get to 60..downhill ...i didn't get to take a look at the engine, nor drivetrain...is this style FWD or RWD?
Pull the bulbs out and take a closer look, if they look a bit on the well used side, I would suggest starting with new bulbs first, before diving in more complicated checks on wiring or what not.
I believe they are FWD, but I honestly can't remember for sure, haven't seen one for ages!
Easy way to tell is how the engine is mounted. If the valve cover faces the front, it is RWD. If it faces the right side of the bay, it is FWD. As for transmission issues, try a new clutch. As for the lights, I agree to try new bulbs first as well. I am not familiar with how this era of Corolla is wired, but it's possible if they are wired in series (IE one goes out the other goes out too).
thank you guys, like i said i didn't get to look inside the hood else i would know about the drive train. I'll let my friend know, the lights are working fine, but they're dim, so we'll change the bulbs out for new ones hopefully that helps
btw quick question, are these sealed headlights, meaning that you have to change the WHOLE light and casing, or just the little bulb?
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so anyways, i went looked at the car today, quite a design for the light switch i kinda like it haha (idk if they're all the same, but the round knob dial type) anyways the drawings were a bit missleading, so everything was working fine, except he didn't know that the bright lights were controlled by the blinker lever...took me about 1.5 minutes to figure out what was wrong with it
haha..anyways so that problem is fixed, now the only problem is very dim lights, his brights were already dim...dimmer than just regular headlights...you think new light bulbs will do it? 
...i didn't get to take a look at the engine, nor drivetrain...is this style FWD or RWD?
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