High Beams...

[addy287]

hey all.

been a while since i posted, hope all ur toyotas are going strong still.

just a small problem with mine, about a month ago i went to put my high beams on and....nothing. kinda annoying, since i previously had a prblem with the headlight relay i thought that was the culperate so i went to toyota and spent $44 for a brand new one, hoping that it would do the job.....nothing.

ill try explain this as best as possible. i hope that everyone know, when u FLASH (pull the indicator) the high beams, ur low beam driving lights will also go on. if i flash mine, the low beam driving lights will flash on, but not the high beams.. (with engine on or off)

i noticed also, that the little blue indicator light on the dash that goes on when u put ur high beams on, isn't going on either. im inclinded to think that it could be the indicator switch, so i took it apart did my best to clean the contacks etc, but still nothing. the guy at toyota said that thats about 3-400 to fix. which is not worth it, i would just get second hand anyway

any help on this situation would be greatly appreciated. btw both fuses are fine lol i already checked. (gen 4 camry)

thanks

[addy287]

anyone?

DJ...you must have sumthing to saw oh wise one. haha

[DJKOR]

DJ...you must have sumthing to saw oh wise one. haha

Sorry mate, didn't reply here for some reason.

The only thing I can think of is the grounding. Are your high beams like a H1 or something in which you only have one wire connecting to it? If so, you would find this is the positive wire and the grounding for the bulb is done through the spring clip that holds the bulb in place. Over time, it is possible that this spring clip and build up carbon deposits on the surface of it and therefore prevent the bulb from grounding. When this happens, your high beams won't activate. Usually cleaning the spring clip with some sand paper can help.

First things first, you should test the connector for the bulb to ensure power is getting to it firstly. This can rule out problems prior to that.

As well, if you have H4 style low beams, take them out and inspect it to see if both filaments inside are still intact. With my old Camry, if the high beam filament on the H4 bulb was blown, the secondary high beams would not activate.

[addy287]

DJ...you must have sumthing to saw oh wise one. haha

Sorry mate, didn't reply here for some reason.

The only thing I can think of is the grounding. Are your high beams like a H1 or something in which you only have one wire connecting to it? If so, you would find this is the positive wire and the grounding for the bulb is done through the spring clip that holds the bulb in place. Over time, it is possible that this spring clip and build up carbon deposits on the surface of it and therefore prevent the bulb from grounding. When this happens, your high beams won't activate. Usually cleaning the spring clip with some sand paper can help.

First things first, you should test the connector for the bulb to ensure power is getting to it firstly. This can rule out problems prior to that.

As well, if you have H4 style low beams, take them out and inspect it to see if both filaments inside are still intact. With my old Camry, if the high beam filament on the H4 bulb was blown, the secondary high beams would not activate.

hey DJ.

my high beams are HB3 so they hav a plug connector with 2 wires going into it. as for the filaments on my H4 driving lights, they are in good nick, i even took them out and tried my spare pare just to be sure.

im going to borrow my friends terminal tester, so that i can see where the power stops...at light fitting, fuse box, indicator switch etc.

if you can think of anything else that will help, please let me know

[peregrine]

hey all.

been a while since i posted, hope all ur toyotas are going strong still.

just a small problem with mine, about a month ago i went to put my high beams on and....nothing. kinda annoying, since i previously had a prblem with the headlight relay i thought that was the culperate so i went to toyota and spent $44 for a brand new one, hoping that it would do the job.....nothing

thanks

Hi, stupid question I suppose> but surely the first thing to check would be the fuse yet it has not been mentioned so I can only believe it is too incidental or has been overlooked. Not sure about your car but on other makes I have owned there is also a fuseable link although this usually blinks the lights to allow some vision to give you the opportunity to come to a stop.

[DJKOR]

Hi, stupid question I suppose> but surely the first thing to check would be the fuse yet it has not been mentioned ...

any help on this situation would be greatly appreciated. btw both fuses are fine lol i already checked. (gen 4 camry)

[addy287]

just thought i would keep you informed.. and maybe u can suggest sumething else to try.

this arvo, i went to my friends house with a terminal tester to see if we could find anything helpfull. wot we found is kinda confusing.

1. both bulbs are working fine (HB3)

2. however, only 300mV is getting to the globes from the circuit.

3. nothing seems to be wron with the switch, as we took that apart and tested the amount of power going through.

4. Relay is brand spanking new, so i dont think that is a problem.

5. both fuses are in good working order.

i dont know where to turn to, i am considering just taking it to an auto electrician but dont want to be left with a big fat bill. thought i would try posting up here again if anyone can help.

thanks in advance

[DJKOR]

Without looking at it myself, I can't really think of what else I can advise you of. From my memory on how my old Camry worked, the low beams were a dual filament H4 bulb with an additional H1 high beam (something the American models didn't have). It would appear yours is the same.

Remembering how it operates, when you have your low beams on, only one filament of the H4 bulb should be illuminated; the one at the front with the metal shroud around it. When you switch on the high beams, the low beam filament should turn off and the other filament towards the base of the bulb should then illuminate. If one or both of these filaments illuminated, then the secondary high beams would activate. If both filaments were blown, then the secondary high beams would not work.

Apart from that, the only other faults would be either fuse/relay faults (if I recall correctly, the secondary high beam relay was located on the inside of my Camry and wasn't really labelled), switch issues (not common), or even worse, burnt out wiring due to higher wattage bulbs.

Yours seems to be playing a bit of mix and match from the sounds of things. I'm not good with written instructions since I'm a hands on person and something like this needs a good look at.