Solution for Dim Headlights - 97 Cherokee Sport

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive, effective remedy (that a novice could install) for the really dim headlights on our 97 Cherokee Sport?

Driving at night in rain+fog is very difficult and I don't think it's because of poor headlight alignment - they're just not bright enough.

Thanks for any help,

Tony

Reply to
7h95g
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Onlt three things can cause this, a bad ground for them or excessive voltage drop in 12 volt feed to them or low system voltage. First I would check the headlight grounds to body and body to engine/ battery ground You ght pull apart connectes where they are bolted on and make sure they have aclean connection and you ight add a extra ground strap too between body and engine. If this does not work, you could increase the size of feed wire coming from light switch to head lights to about a 14 or maybe a 12 ga to reduce voltage drop and also check any connec tions in it s path before you attempt to run a new oversized wire. Also check battery voltage when running and it should be around 14 give or take. YOu could try check voltage at light with light are on and blub is plugged in to see how much voltage you are getting to them under load and also if you measure voltage between headlight ground and engine block with lights installed and on there shoul be no more than maybe .10 or so seen. If more voltage is seen then there is a problem with grounds as mentioned above. You can do same with hot feed and can measure voltage drop to it by reading between battery and blub

12 volt pin with lights installed on as this will show drop in this. These test will show is there is a big loss in feed circuit.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Reply to
SnoMan

I had bullet connectors in my driving lights line. They had got corroded and warmed when the lights were on. I cut them out and soldered/shrink wrapped the wires. Now the lights are nice and bright again. In this case, the grounds were good. Check your wires and connections first like Snoman said.

Reply to
Scott in Baltimore

A bad headlight wire connection will usually give off heat.

I have seen a lot of bad headlight switches in later Jeeps that caused dimming. These switches got physically hot, so you can carefully feel the switch when the lights have been on for a while.

Same for the main wire connections on the lights like Scott mentioned. They will be hot if they are a bad connection.

Had one bad connection in a TJ that the dealer couldn't find after several trips and diagnosed a bad computer so the gent gave up and wired the headlights direct using the stock wiring to only trigger the relays to turn them on which is super low power. That turned his headlights a 'bright' white by giving them battery voltage and has lasted several years. He obviously had a power issue, not a ground issue. He/we used this link to wire the relays:

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You can use a multimeter to look for voltage drops by 'walking' it around. You take a reading on the battery positive and negative 'posts' to see the volts, then move the negative probe to the clamp, then to the body to see if it is the same, then to the bolt on the headlight ground out near the fender, then the loop connector on the headlight ground to see if you get any volt drops. If it drops say between the bolt and the loop connector, there is a bad connection there.

You can do the same for the positive probe while leaving the negative probe on the battery post. Even just see if there is a drop between the battery posts and the battery cable clamps. The drop or bad connection can be there even.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - G> Can anyone suggest an inexpensive, effective remedy (that a novice could
Reply to
Mike Romain

Replacement sealed beam units?

Reply to
Matt Macchiarolo

Yeah I vote for old Sealed Beam Headlights. I have replaced sealed beams with brighter ones and it made a remarkable improvement. Not sure what the 1997s have. Replacement sealed beam units?

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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