I have a 2001 Passat with a headlight problem. This is the secong time I have experienced this problem so I really don't want to drop over $100 again on something that might not be serious. My headlight is out and no... it is not the bulb. I have tested the female plug that connects to the male headlight assembly and I get 12 volts from both the low and high beams. I disconnected the assembly and the bulb itself and tested for continuity. All posts tested good. But when I hookup the female to male assembly there is no power at the bulb end. This is exactly what happened to this car about six months ago and the dealer said they cleaned a bad connection. I too have cleaned the connections with special electrical parts cleaner, they glow now! Still no power to the lamp. You can probably guess that the plug must not be making a good connection but what could I do to make it connect well? Or if anyone has a better idea please let me know. Thank you in advance! Mike
2001 Passat Headlight
Jan 28, 2004
5 Replies
Did you test for continuity between the ground wire on the plug and the chassis? I'm wondering if the ground wire isn't properly grounding.
Any idea where the ground is for the light system? I know the brown wire is the ground.
Don't know but all you have to do is stick one probe from the test light/meter into the brown wire's socket and then use the other probe/contact on the meter and touch it to a known good grounding point on the body or chassis. Find a known good point by first putting one probe on your neg. battery terminal and then poke around until you get continuity somewhere. When you do, that's a good spot to test with. Use that spot and the ground wire's socket in the headlamp plug to test the headlamp ground.
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