Headlights just went out..

[jbrdbr111]

Ok so was driving last night and my headlights just went out, but only low beams. I managed to drive home in the dark on high beams alone, but they didn't appear as bright to me as usual.

Today I checked the fuse box under the hood and checked both 15a fuses and they look fine for headlights. I see no other fuses for them, so am pretty puzzled. Any ideas?

[Blof-fan]

Wiring still ok? Bulbs themselves still ok?

[jbrdbr111]

Originally Posted by Blof-fan

Wiring still ok? Bulbs themselves still ok?

Bulbs are fine, and wires look fine from what I can see.

[RED91SR5]

Originally Posted by jbrdbr111

Ok so was driving last night and my headlights just went out, but only low beams. I managed to drive home in the dark on high beams alone, but they didn't appear as bright to me as usual.

Today I checked the fuse box under the hood and checked both 15a fuses and they look fine for headlights. I see no other fuses for them, so am pretty puzzled. Any ideas?

I had the same thing happen when the voltage regulator died in my alternator.

[jbrdbr111]

Originally Posted by RED91SR5

I had the same thing happen when the voltage regulator died in my alternator.

I don't know much about a car's electrical system, mostly home related issues, but wouldn't the headlight fuses blow if the voltage went out of wack, or does the alternator directly feed the headlights when the car is running without going through the fuse box?

[RED91SR5]

Originally Posted by jbrdbr111

I don't know much about a car's electrical system, mostly home related issues, but wouldn't the headlight fuses blow if the voltage went out of wack, or does the alternator directly feed the headlights when the car is running without going through the fuse box?

Could cause a number of things to happen, I have it where the VR goes and your just running off the battery power. I have also seen where it causes a large voltage drain when the car is off when the VR goes and or a number of weird things. Anyway, it was just a thought, might not be your issue but couldn't hurt to check to see if it's ok.

[REN69]

I believe there is a relay for low beams and one for high beams if I'm not mistaken... check your fuse/relay box in the engine bay.

I've had headlights burn in pairs before, if you can get your hands on another lightbulb that's not burnt, try and see if that's not the problem first.

[jbrdbr111]

Originally Posted by REN69

I believe there is a relay for low beams and one for high beams if I'm not mistaken... check your fuse/relay box in the engine bay.

I've had headlights burn in pairs before, if you can get your hands on another lightbulb that's not burnt, try and see if that's not the problem first.

I only see one relay for the headlights under the hood. My park lights work fine with the switch and I can hear the click under the hood when I flip my switch, so I assume that's fine.

I've never had just lowbeams die, but Tomorrow imma go grab a new pair during the day and check it out, plus I'll drive to auto place and get them to test my alternator as well. I'm determined to get to the bottom of all of this..

[j2b4osan]

I know it's a totally different beast but maximas have been known to blow headlights in pairs when the alt is on the way out. Mine actually would look like my car took a picture of the car in front of it (flash) and than both lowbeams would be dead, and if you drove on the highs it would blow them aswell in time. So I'm on the, it may be a VR problem wagon.

[jbrdbr111]

Ok, Alternator was bad, so replaced that and got some new bulbs, so far so good.

[Createdtoburn]

The only way I can imagine your alternator causing your lights to blow is if the regulator in it went bad and started overcharging the battery causing too much voltage to the lights and blowing them. But usually you'd have a battery light come on in the dash if its overcharging that much.

Another way is possibly if it was undercharging and voltage got too low, maybe the relay didnt have enough voltage to keep the circuit closed and turned off power to the lights.

Usually when lights go out, they go out one at a time, not both at once. If they both go off at once, it's most likely not the light, most likely a relay or switch.

In this case if replacing the alternator fixed it, then it was most likely just a voltage issue. :p

[RED91SR5]

Glad you got it going. I've just had experience with blowing both head lights at the same time on both my toyota's and it happened to be a bad alt that caused it so I thought you might have the same issue. There seems to be a lot of weird electrical issues then the alts in these toys go but they keep on running!

[Donald]

I just fixed the exact same problem on that Sedan that I am resurrecting.

It turned out to be a bad connector plug attached to the side of the fuse/relay block under the drivers kick panel.

Two of the connectors apparently got so hot that they started melting the connector housing.
Both pins had backed out of the housing a bit. I don't know if thay got hot because they weren't making propper contact, or if they backed out beacuse the plastic was melting.

At first I thought of just replacing the connector, but then I thought that it may have a bad wire that caused the problem. So I decided to just replace the entire wire harness all the way from the fuse block to the front grill and lights.

It took me about 5 hours to pull the one from the junk yard, and then swap it into my car.
This involved loosening up the radiator and moving it into the engine bay a bit, pulling the plastic shield under the left fender, and pulling the fuse boxes in the engine compartment.