Headlight Problem, continued

First, thanks to everyone who answered my post about my 2001 Honda Civic with both headlights out.

Further investigation reveals that the high-beams work, but not the low-beams. I replaced one bulb to see what happens, and it's the same thing - the low-beams don't work but the high-beams do. The fuses for the headlights look good, but as someone suggested, they could be bad anyway. I don't have a multimeter to test them. Should I just replace the fuses and see what happens?

Tegger - you mentioned a third, 100a fuse under the hood that protects both sides of the headlight circuit. The biggest fuse that I can find in the under-hood fuse box is an 80a fuse that protects the battery. Is there one somewhere else?

Thanks

Reply to
pupdef
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You can check the fuse with a flashlight battery, bulb and a small piece of wire. Just create the small circuit with the fuse inserted into the circuit. If it lights, your fuse is good. If not, you've found the problem.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

goto the parts store and get a fuse tester, comes with assortment of new fuses. Cheap too.

Reply to
bigjcw1023

Do you have DRL? If so check the low beam cut relay. If not possibly the multifunction light switch. Spend a couple bucks on a millimeter and learn how to trace the circuit. You can get a cheap millimeter for under five bucks from Harbor Freight that will work for your purposes. If you plan on doing your own service work you have to have one.

Reply to
Woody

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:28927a79-dca8-46f2-b553-048f3af825f5@

59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

Do you have any aftermarket add-ons, like stereo, alarm, remote start, foglights, etc.?

If there are no intrusions into the electrical system, then your combination switch is going bad. That's the stalk on the steering column which controls the headlights.

The combo switch provides a common ground for the two headlamp relays (the ground activates the relays), plus it provides a common ground path for the high/low beam switch.

You need to buy a cheap multimeter (available at any auto parts place) and some test wire and start tracing the circuits and actually testing the fuses.

Try temporarily swapping in a 15A fuse from some other circuit, just to be sure the fuses are OK.

Two simple tests you can perform if the fuses are good:

1) Ground terminal 7 of the combo switch connector (blu/red wire). Do the low beams now come on? Then the on/off portion of the combo switch is bad. 2) Turn the headlight switch to low beams. Ground terminal 6 of the combo switch connector (red/wht wire). Do the low beams come on now? If so, then the high/low portion of the combo switch is bad.

It seems for test #1 you can tap the blu/red wire from the back of the fuse block, so you don't have to mess with the steering column. But for test #2 it looks like you need to either pull the column covers or ground the red/white wire by backprobing it at the headlamp connector.

Reply to
Tegger

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9A666F3BB8AD0tegger@207.14.116.130:

in the US,you can get a cheap DMM at Harbor Freight,usually under $5. On sale,they sell for $3.

but test it first with a 1.5V alkaline cell;the 1st DMM I got from HF read way high(>2.0V),had to exchange it for another that read OK.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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