Headlight problem - highbeams aren't working...

[Nymah]

Hey guys,

I'm in need of a bit of help, and couldn't quite find what I was looking for after a quick google search.

So basically, I was driving along the other night, and went to turn my highbeams on when I turned onto a dark road. All of a sudden, my lights stopped working, both low and high beams. So I pulled over, opened up the engine bay and had a quick fiddle around with the wires...

I moved the plug around a bit on the 3 prong globe on ONLY the left side of the car, and then I had low beams again on both sides, however I was unsuccessful to get the high beams working.

The next day I pulled the light units out and had a look at the wiring on both sides, and it's all fine. The coils in the globes are fine too. I checked all the fuses, and they are fine as well.

I did notice that when you flick the high beams on, there's actually no high beam indicator coming on the dash anymore, but I still hear the relays clicking in the engine bay...

I'm really stumped by this, and I drive at night a lot for work, so I need to get this sorted ASAP. The last thing I want to do is send it off to an auto electrician as I'd like to save as much money as possible. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Please and thank you in advance.

[trentmeyer23]

Get yourself a multimeter, you can pick up a cheap one for less than $20 if you are on a budget and start tracing the wires back and check for voltage.

[RelishGTP]

I had the exact same problem years back, turned out to be the headlight combo switch was burning out at the base where it connects into the stearing column causing shorts, cleaned it up an never happend again. Might be a good area to check out could be the same cause.

Hope this helps

[Nymah]

Bit of a later reply, but I found the issue!

Running headlights that were rated 10W too much over time caused the switch within the relay to bend, causing no contact.
I solved this by bending it back with a pair of small pliers.

Don't have any photos on hand however, I've since sold this car.

Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem in future.