NB headlight out -- bulb is OK

the headlights are not on separate fuses. i had one of mine lamps stop working after running 100w bulbs in there a while. even after replacing the bulbs with good ones (55/60 hella h4) it would do odd things like one headlight would lit when on dims and neither when on brights. one of the sockets was slightly deformed (melted) but that didn't seem to be the problem. i ultimately found that one of the three leads to the damaged socket had slightly melted about 5 inches down from socket. perhaps there was a bend in the wire at that point and the excess demand from the high wattage bulb caused it to fail at that particulr point. pat happened to have been parting out a car and was kind enough to send me a replacement socket with some leads (thank you once again pat!). i was able to back the two good leads out of the original socket and insert them into the 'new' socket, leaving me with only one wire to splice. it was not obvious by testing that this would be the solution. apparently the polarity reverses when you switch from dims to brights and it didn't seem to make sense what was going on. but the physical damage suggested it was the source of the problem and so it was wroth a try to replace and when replaced it did indeed solve the problem. a long way to say if you ever used high wattage bulbs then you might want to closely inspect the wires for signs of melting. if you need a new socket with leads they are available on ebay.

I didn't think so, but it would have been an easy fix...

I've never used anything except 55W bulbs, but I guess it's time to get out the multi-meter and start checking the wiring and connectors. The connector and wires _look_ fine, but I haven't ohmed anything out yet.

If you check the wiring diagram you'll eliminate a bunch of stuff, you need only look from the point where the headlight separates to the bulb socket.

Wiring diagram, if you don't have one:

Thanks

Only goes up to 2000, and mines a 2003.

I'll keep searching...

Interestingly, the wiring diagram for the 2000 does show separate fuzes for L/R headlights...

AHA!

I'd take a look at it assuming it to be the same as the 2000 model, it probably is. Have you had a chance to verify the 2 fuse deal?

Chris

Yes, the '03 does have seperate L/R headlight fuzes. The fuze was OK.

It looks like the connector is a bit dodgy. The plastic is melted a little bit around one of the contacts. After I stuck some chunks of copper staple into the connector to measure voltages and resistance (which seemed OK), I plugged the bulb back into it and now it works.

I think one of the contacts got corroded/bent/dirty/something and increased in resistance -- heating up enough to melt a little bit of plastic before it went completely open. Messing with it seems to have "fixed" it, but I'll be shopping for a new connector.

Now if I can just figure out how to get at the back of the fog lights so I can replace the foglight bulb that's been out for about a year...