Headlights wont turn on, but brights will.

[Ty]

Tonight I noticed that my headlights wont turn on. I had to pull over, looked over the fuses a little, and ended up having to drive home with the brights on.

The dims wont turn on at all now, but the brights work fine when I turn them on.

Probably 2 months ago I had a similar problem with the dim lights, but all I had to do was flicker the brights on and off, and the dims would turn back on.

My car automatically turns on the dim lights when it gets dark out, but I did try to manually turn them on with the switch, but nothing would turn them on.

I did replace both the dim lights about 4 months ago when I first noticed them not wanting to turn on.

Any idea what I need to do to get them to work again?
Thanks!

Topic

[Ty]

I did some reading online and it seems the combo switch may be bad or the contacts for the high beam lights is corroded enough where it affects the low beam lights from working. Would it be worthwhile to take the combo switch apart and clean up the contact points for the lights and see if that helps?

[college man]

what vehicle is this? usually those switches are sealed.

[twiggy]

Do you have separate bulbs for high and low beam or the dual filament ones? It’s common for the low beam filaments to blow but not the high beam as the high beam is not used as much. Usually I lose both low beam filaments at about the same time.

[Dave]

Im a big fan of an INS and OUTS Check list for any problem.

OUT= Action that you want to happen = Headlights to work

INS= What is needed to make that Action happen.
Electricity to a system, fuse, switch, wire and light bulb.

I always start with the fuse like you already did.
Bulbs seem like the next bet like twiggy said.
after that time to break out the multimeter and open the gates of hell!!!

[Trent “Teddy” Martin]

Your looking at a fuse issue or a bulb issue usually if the switch goes your dash will flicker because it doesn’t have good contact or it won’t light up with the headlights 🙂

[Ty]

Well the car is a 2001 Chevy Impala.

I just replaced the lights not 4 months ago, so its hard to believe that they both burned out at the same time this shortly. Is it really likely that this is whats wrong?

Also, what will the fuse be labeled as? Will it be one of the small fuses, or one of the bigger box fuses next to the small ones?

[Ty]

Well I took out one of the headlights and it doesn’t appear to be burned out. It looks brand new just like when I put it in.

[college man]

with your meter or test light. check for 12v at the socket/plug.
if 12v is seen bad bulb. if not seen here is some trouble shooting.

2001 Chevrolet Impala, No Low Beam Headlights

[Ty]

Ok, well I checked the bulb, it looks good and not burned out.

I checked the fuses under the hood and none of them are burned out.

I checked the DRL relay switch and under the hood and there was no corrosion around it. Opened up the relay switch and it looked clean and no burn marks or corrosion.

I guess I will check the voltage on the lamp when my brother gets home.

If there is no voltage in the lamp, what kinds of things should we troubleshoot?

[college man]

click on the link I sent previous.

[Dave]

basic owners manual will give you the fuse layout that you were looking for.

[Dave]

Also remember to never touch the bulbs with your bare hands.

[Ty]

Well, after a couple hours of tearing stuff apart I finally got the lights to work.

Both the headlights would read 0 volts, but 12 volts if you would ground the wire on the meter. We checked all the fuses, which were alright, and we concluded it was the combination switch. I had a feeling that was what was wrong the entire time, and I used that website college man provided (thanks) and took off the combination switch.

Once I got the switch off I opened it up and found where the contact metal was on the chip (it did look like a large SD card). It had some black crud on it and corrosion so I took some sand paper and cleaned them all off. Put the combo switch back together, plugged everything in, now I have dim lights again!

My fingers are a little sore, but I’m glad its fixed.

Thanks everyone for the help.

[Bill]

Vehicle year,make, model might be helpful. It wouldn’t be the first time i saw a headlight burn out and shortly after the other one pooped out too.

I would turn the lights on and disconnect each headlight and test for power and ground at the terminals of the socket with a test light. If there is power you better buy higher quality bulbs.

If no power is there, with more info we might be able to give more testing details.

[Author]

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