Please help, no headlights!

[jasona]

1st of all I have some of the cheap "EBay headlights" that have seperate lights for low and high beams. I've had them for a few months with no problems. They came wired wrong from the factory, but once I got that straightened out they worked great. About a week ago my passenger side low beam went out. A few days later my passenger side high beam. Then my driver side low beam. I took the bulbs out and they weren't blown, but I put new ones in just in case and it didn't help. The drivers side low beam was burnt out when I took it out, but it smelled freshly burnt so I think it must have done it when I was messing with it. Anyways, I got the drivers side light to work right when the passenger side was unplugged, low beam on and high beam off when I set it to lows, and vice versa. But when I plug the passenger side in, ALL the lights will stay on all the time, and they're really dim. The Drivers side low and high still get bright when I turned them on, but not the passenger ones, and they shouldn't be on all the time and dim like that. So I swapped the siring around to see if that helped, and apparantly I touched some that shouldn't have, cuz it blew out both of my underhood headlight fuses. I put new fuses on, but now NONE of the lights will turn on at all. There's a loud clicking sound coming from the area of the underhood fuse box, I don't seem to remember it doing that before. The headlight relays are in the fuse box, but I can't tell if that's where the clicking is coming from or not.

Any ideas?

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[Mulder]

You might have blown another fuse in addition to the ones for the headlights. Check the rest of the fuses in the underhood box.
You can probe the connections at the lights with a test light or voltmeter to determine if there is a loss of power, ground or (unlikely) both.
Check the lights themselves for shorts or damage to the harnesses and connectors.
Test all your bulbs with an ohmeter to see if they are really good or not.

[satrya]

Originally Posted by jasona

But when I plug the passenger side in, ALL the lights will stay on all the time, and they're really dim.

In this instance, do you mean they are all on with the keys in the ignition on position and hand brake released? Could this be a combination between damaged DRL relay and a short in the ground path on the connectors?

I had the brief opportunity to test these WRC-look headlights ( http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=609978 ), but didn't get the chance to see how well the wiring lasts over time. I'd be interested if you could share what you could find out about this problem.

[jasona]

I checked the rest of the fuses in the underhood box and all were good. Test light shows no power at any of the lights. Did I blow my relays?

satrya, I didn't think to test it with just the DRL's, as I was parked in my garage with the handbrake on while I was messing with it, and now I can't cuz it won't work at all.

[Mulder]

There should be power at the center pin of the headlight connectors, that is the common power. If you don't see power there with the headlight switch fully on, it's either a blown fuse, bad relay, or wiring problem.

[jasona]

Would blwoing just 1 relay cause both headlights to go out, or would it have to be both?

[suby4ub]

never trust lights off ebay, i learned the hard way. besides now they make silverstars for subarus they are costly but worth in imo

[jasona]

Is there any way I can test the relays themselves?

[Mulder]

The relays are independent for each side so for both lights to be out you'd have to blow both of them which is unlikely (but anything is possible). You can try swapping in another relay from a different position in the fuse box, as long as it's an identical one. Just do this temporarily for a test in case it's for something important, don't leave it like that.

[jasona]

Here's what someone told me to do on a local forum:

"But I would reccomend rewiring your headlights. All you'll need are two relays for each side. Wire the hot side of the relay to a fused terminal on your battery with at least 14 gauge wire. Just find the output voltage to each light after the stock relay, and simply use this wire for the turnon wire for your new relay. That way, your aftermarket bulbs won't draw enough current to burn up the stock wires/relay."

Should I do this?

[Mulder]

Fix your problem with the existing wiring first before you consider any further modifications. Something is wrong with your factory wiring if there is no power to the headlights so you need to deal with that.

[jasona]

Okay, remember I said I tryed changing some wires around and blew both headlight fuses? Well I put new fuses in but forgot to fix the wiring, so the new ones just blew too. I put the wiring back like it was and put new fuses in and everything is fine now. No idea what caused the problem in the 1st place but it's gone now Thanks for all the help!

Should I consider the mod I posted above or will 2 55w bulbs be fine on the stock wiring?

[Mulder]

I would say, that if you have it working now put the 55W bulbs in and call it a day. That's stock wattage so the existing wiring is fine.

[jasona]

Also, I feel like a dumbass for doing this but... when I was swapping other relays in to check I forgot which points I took them out of. I have 2 relays that came out of 3 possible plugs, "Main Fan 1", "Main Fan 2", and "Sub Fan 1". Which 2 of these are supposed to have the relays in them?

[Mulder]

Main Fan 1 and Sub Fan 1.

[jasona]

That's what I thought, thanks!