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Old 05-17-2011, 01:30 PM   #1
sry110
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Default 2003 WRX headlight problem

I searched and could not find this problem specifically. I just noticed this today when I was driving on my lunch break. I noticed that the high beam indicator light in the gauge cluster is constantly dimly lit, whether my low beams are switched on or off. I got out of the car and noticed that the passenger side low beam is lit, while the driver side bulb is just barely, barely lit (I can see just a hint of light reflecting off the inside of the headlight housing, but not nearly enough to even light up the inside of the housing). I jiggled the headlight wires around to see if it was a bad connection but it was to no avail.

The bulbs I am using are Sylvania (silverstars I think) and are the proper wattage and bulb type as per the Sylvania catalog that they had on display as a reference guide at the local auto parts store (I think I got them at Pep Boys).

I replaced the bulbs within the past 6 months, and the fact that the bulb is giving off even a small amount of light tells me it's an electrical problem, not a bulb problem.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? And is there an existing fix and/or troubleshooting thread? I would like to try all fixes before resorting to taking it to a $hop.

Thanks in advance!
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Old 05-17-2011, 01:37 PM   #2
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Check the fuse for the driver side headlight, it is probably blown.
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Old 05-17-2011, 02:08 PM   #3
sry110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulder View Post
Check the fuse for the driver side headlight, it is probably blown.
If the fuse was blown would I still be getting that small trickle of light from the bulb?

And can you point me toward which fuse is for that headlight? (Or whether the fuses are mapped out in the owner's manual? I haven't looked..)
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Old 05-17-2011, 07:11 PM   #4
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Yes if the fuse for one side blows the bulb will still be dimly lit. This is due to backfeeding through the filament from the opposite side.
The headlight fuses are in the engine compartment fuse box, there is a diagram inside the cover to identify them.
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Old 05-17-2011, 09:46 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulder View Post
Yes if the fuse for one side blows the bulb will still be dimly lit. This is due to backfeeding through the filament from the opposite side.
The headlight fuses are in the engine compartment fuse box, there is a diagram inside the cover to identify them.
Thanks for the reply. I just went out and checked, both of the low beam headlight fuses are intact. I noticed this time that the bulbs lit up and gave up a very "orangey" light, like they were only receiving partial power. Would this be caused by the relays going bad?
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Old 05-18-2011, 08:21 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sry110 View Post
Thanks for the reply. I just went out and checked, both of the low beam headlight fuses are intact. I noticed this time that the bulbs lit up and gave up a very "orangey" light, like they were only receiving partial power. Would this be caused by the relays going bad?
Did you check the fuses with a multimeter? Just because they appear normal doesn't mean they are working correctly.
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Old 05-18-2011, 08:39 AM   #7
sry110
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Originally Posted by jonklein611 View Post
Did you check the fuses with a multimeter? Just because they appear normal doesn't mean they are working correctly.
I did not but I will have to try doing a continuity test on them today.

The plot thickens though: Now both low beam bulbs come on but are very dim and orange colored. Foglights work as normal. When I turn on the high beams, the passenger side low beam turns off as the high beam turns on (as normal), and the driver side goes out altogether. As I keep driving, the driver side headlight eventually goes out, which prevents my foglights from working and causes the high beam indicator light in the gauge cluster to illuminate very faintly.

Now I'm wondering if it's a problem with one or more of the relays in the fuse box? I might end up having my local shop take a look at it tomorrow. The mechanic is a former Subaru mechanic and is familiar with WRX's so hopefully he can diagnose the issue much quicker than me!
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Old 05-18-2011, 09:14 AM   #8
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Check the DTDL pack under the boost controller cover in the engine bay. Try unplugging it and see if it makes a difference.
Also check the grounds for the headlights, they are the wires that bolt to the frame rails just in front of the lower cam covers.

DTDL= day time driving lights
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Old 05-18-2011, 09:20 AM   #9
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Not only continuity, but resistance as well. I've had times where a connector had gone bad and was causing high resistance levels.
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Old 05-18-2011, 10:58 AM   #10
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Thanks guys. Will hopefully have a chance to check tonight, and if not I will convey these ideas to the mechanic.
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Old 05-18-2011, 12:51 PM   #11
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It is highly unlikely that both headlight relays are having trouble. They supply 12 volt power to the lights. If you measure the voltage getting to the lights I suspect that you will see full 12 volt power getting to them. It is the common ground connection to the lights is where I think you will find the trouble. To verify that you could jumper the ground side of one of the headlights directly to ground and bypass the connection through the light switch. If the lights get bright then the ground is the trouble. Most likely the switch connection is flakey. You could also check the voltage on the ground side while the lights are on and see if there is a voltage more than .5 volts. If there is, that means the ground connection for the lights is bad.
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Old 05-18-2011, 01:05 PM   #12
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Old 05-20-2011, 03:58 PM   #13
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Soooo...the shop says it was just a bad headlight. I don't know if I believe it yet. I've never personally seen a headlight do anything other than a) light up as normal, or b) not light up at all. Meanwhile this one was just lighting up faintly and causing the high beam indicator to come on faintly. The guy at the shop says it was a bad bulb causing the entire headlight circuit to malfunction and "back-feeding" a signal causing the hi beam thing to come on. Meanwhile, the bulbs were Sylvania Silverstars which I put in less than 6 months ago and I can't see how they were already going bad.

Anyway, I'll keep my eye on it and see what comes of it.
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Old 05-20-2011, 08:40 PM   #14
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Ah, the two filaments were prob touching each other causing all sorts of crazy stuff.
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Old 07-05-2011, 09:56 AM   #15
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I thought I would update this thread since the problem persists. I noticed yesterday that my driver side headlight bulb is out again, hi-beam indicator light is dimly lit, fogs will not turn on. Passenger side is still lit. Same symptoms as before. It's only been ~ 1.5 months since the bulb was replaced with a new one, so I was 99% sure the it's not a bad bulb. I got home and parked the car, popped the hood and jiggled the wire harness (3 wires) that connect to the bulb and sure enough the bulb flickered on and off.

Disconnected the battery, pulled the wire harness plug out from the bulb and found that the plastic around the middle connector in the plug appears to be melted and therefore clogging up the connector. I should have taken a picture of it. The plug is blue, but the plastic all around the middle connector was black/brown and deformed, even melted into a solidified drip underneath the connector. I took a small flat blade screwdriver and dug out as much of the melted plastic as possible without totally breaking the connector free. Meanwhile I noticed no discolorations, deformations or other abnormalities on the bulb connectors.

Made sure the connector in the plug was free of plastic scraps, plugged the bulb back in, connected the battery and the bulb lit up fine. Hi beams and fog lights working again, no more hi-beam indicator light dimly lit on the dash.

I'm not very good with electrical issues. Can anyone hypothesize what's going on here? Seems like something is generating a lot of heat at that middle connector, enough to cause the surrounding plastic to melt. As far as I know, the bulbs that were installed by the shop are OEM form/fit/function replacement, so they should be the same power rating as OEM and therefor not drawing high current which could cause overheating / melting of the circuit components.

I'm a little bit at a loss but I would like to see if I can fix it myself before spending (wasting?) time at a shop again.
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Old 07-05-2011, 10:15 AM   #16
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Usually when the connectors melt like that it's because aftermarket bulbs were used at some point and caused the wiring to overheat. The fix is to buy replacement 9007 connectors with wire pigtails, cut the damaged connectors and wiring off, and splice in the new ones. You can do this yourself if you follow proper wiring practice, i.e. crimped or soldered connections sealed with heat shrink or good electrical tape.
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Old 07-05-2011, 10:34 AM   #17
sry110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulder View Post
Usually when the connectors melt like that it's because aftermarket bulbs were used at some point and caused the wiring to overheat. The fix is to buy replacement 9007 connectors with wire pigtails, cut the damaged connectors and wiring off, and splice in the new ones. You can do this yourself if you follow proper wiring practice, i.e. crimped or soldered connections sealed with heat shrink or good electrical tape.
Thanks for the info. I'm wondering if it's due to the Sylvania bulbs I had in there for a bit. They were the correct wattage though, so I'm not sure why they would cause overheating. In any case, I will take your suggestion and replace the 9007 bulb connectors and confirm that the bulbs currently installed are the correct wattage.
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Old 07-06-2011, 08:51 AM   #18
sry110
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Update: Bought new 9007 bulb connectors, cut out the existing burned / melted one and put the new one in. Plugged in the bulb and flipped the low beams on, and the passenger side lit up like normal while the driver side (the one I just repaired) initially did not light but after about 5 seconds it slowly lights up to a very dim glow. However when I flip the hi-beams on, it lights up like normal.

I put the bulb into the housing and started jiggling the wires and bulb around. Eventually I got it to light up like normal, but it seems that the bulb+wires need to be in a certain position to make it work. I tugged on and jiggled the connections where the new plug is wired into the factory harness, and that did not affect the light output. Instead it's somehow related to either the connections between the wires and the female spade connectors in the plug, or between the female spade connectors and the male spades on the bulb. But that's hard to believe since this is a brand new bulb plug.

Tonight I will try swapping out the new connector for the other new connector that came with it (it was a 2-pack) and see if that makes it any better. In the meantime does anyone have any better ideas?
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Old 07-08-2011, 02:49 PM   #19
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One more update:
I took the bulb and new connector/plug back out and noticed some slop in the fit between the bulb and the plug. When I pulled the bulb out I noticed that the "female" portion of the plug where the bulb spade connectors insert were wider than the OEM counterparts, which allowed the spades to sit loosely in there and explains why the light would flicker when I rocked the bulb back and forth. I pried the connectors a little bit to make the "female" opening effectively more narrow, then reconnected the bulb (required a little more force this time) and now the light stays on even when I jiggle the bulb.
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Old 11-25-2018, 03:27 PM   #20
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Hi, thanks Mulder! Google and I were looking for solution today for same problem w/ my son's 2004 impreza wagon. some lights were bright, others were quite dim. my husband was fixated on grounding issues and i ran across your post about checking the fuse. After that, the light issue was solved, it was the right headlight fuse #15 that was bad, car fixed in 5 mins!! Lesson learned, before tearing things apart, check the fuse box first
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