urgent help! lights out..

[_turtle_]

help guys, the front lites of the cars not working. for a while now, the rite side has been playing up, wen i go over train tracks or something sometimes it would go out, and then come back again some other time. so i figured because it comes back, it can't be the bulb going, so its prolly a lose wire or something.

but tonite, i went over the train tracks and both lites went out!! basically i was only driving with the dim lites and couldn't see shiat so i had to use high beam wen there were no cars and drive back home.

now my question is, is it probably a fuse?? if so which one is it? i dont know which one to change. i remember seeing a diagram somewhere showing which fuse is for what. but i can't seem to find it. can anyone point me in the right direction?

thanks

[Guest Boxhead]

well, i woudl take out the globes and test them anyway.. then, follow the wires from the back of you headlight.. and you should see if there shorting out, or dodgy.. if that is all fine, ask someone else, coz i am sh*t with fuses...

[Bozz]

If your headlights are dim, the voltage must be dropped somewhere else. Where the voltage is being dropped will be getting VERY hot. Lift the bonnet, using the stub of a big screwdriver, tap everything that looks electrical related. If it doesn't solve your problem, inside the car, bash the steering column when the lights are on (naturally take the trim off first) and see if it corrects the problem.

Sniff around for where the heat is coming from, noses are great for finding minute sources of heat.

[_turtle_]

thanks for the help guys. don't think its the fuse, because i swapped the 15A fuse with the one next to it (another 15A for the ciggy lighter) and still didn't work. so it mite be the bulbs, but how do i take them out? i'm sorta a bit dumb dumbs with these kinda things. didn't get back till it was dark today, so i'll take a look at them tomorrow and try work out how to take the globe out. already kinda fiddled around with the wires leading in to them, no luck.

i mite just goto autobarn doncaster, they're very helpful

[inark]

sounds like it could also be a relay issue...

[_turtle_]

sounds like it could also be a relay issue...

could u tell me a little more about this? would it be a relatively cheap and easy to fix problem if it was the relay?

coz i really need to get it fixed so i can drive at nite!

[Bozz]

Originally posted by inark

sounds like it could also be a relay issue...

Could be a relay as much as it could be absolutely anything else to do with the lighting system.

If it's a relay, then it will be bloody hot. See, anything that drops a few volts at high current will dissipate an enormous amount of heat. It simply could be absolutely ANYTHING to do with the headlights. Could even be the plugs that connect the bulbs to the wiring.

If you want to work it out for yourself, perhaps go and re-read my above post and try a bit of hunting around rather than asking people to find a needle in a haystack that we can't even see.

If you are a tiny bit more electrically inclined and know how to follow a wire, perhaps you could use a multimeter and see where the voltage is being dropped. But this is just wasting time, finding the source of the voltage drop is SO much easier by finding out what part is hot.

[_turtle_]

problem solved! the wires on one of the lites ended up being loose. the bulb on the other lite was gone. now i realise that the fuse for these fings are at the back in the boot next to the battery. and i figured out how easy it is to change the globe hehe. if anyone wants to know the globe is a H1 12V 55W P14.5s. Part No. 48320BL. $6.99 at autobarn.

thanks for everyones help.