low beam headlight issue....stumped
 

Whats up guys? I have a headlight problem hopefully someone can help me with. I own a 1994 DX Coupe (just passed 200K miles!!!!). About a week ago i turned on the headlights and the low beams came on for second then both went out. Checked all the fuses, none were blown. After talking to a few people they suggested it could be a headlight switch. So i found one on eBay for $12 that was guaranteed to work. I installed the new one, and my low beams still do not work. My park lights and high beams work, but not the low beams. So either i got a bad (newer) headlight switch, or its something else...I searched this forum, but nothing like my issue. Could it be a ground wire? I have a multimeter, dont really know how to use it, and i have a limited knowledge of electricity. Thanks in advance!

Also: After i checked all the fuses visually (my tester was in my jeep), i noticed my SRS light had come on. Could these two issues be related?

Have you checked the bulbs and the fuses? SRS light is unrelated and indicates a malfunction in the air bag system.

Like Ron said, Always always check the bulb first. Put your meter on ohms and there should be continuity (approximately zero ohms) between any two pins on the bulb.

You can bypass the switch by unplugging it and jumper the white wire to the red and white wire in the plug (car side), low beams should come on. If they do you have a bad switch. From the red and white wire at the switch, power next goes through fuses 21 and 22 to the bulbs.

Thanks for the help guys! I figured out how to use my multimeter and with the lights in the 'on' position the meter does not move when the leads are touching two different pins, but if they are on the same pin (top and bottom of pin) then OHMs will read zero. This is true for both Low and High beam positions. What does this mean?

Also, i tried the jumper wire trick, the big plug has 5 wires, 2 white and 3 red. The 3 red wires each have a different colored stripe--red with white stripe; red with blue stripe; and red with green stripe. Both white wires have no stripe. So i used a paper clip and tried to jumper from both white wires to the red/white stripe wire. Nothing happened.

Am i missing something? The fuses are fine. Thanks!

You always test ohms with the power off. Unplug the bulb and test it by probing the pins on the bulb with the plug removed.

ok. tried MK378's advice. There was continuity in the bulbs. My bulbs have 3 individual plugs, 2 on the sides and 1 on the top. The only place i got continuity was between the 2 plugs on the side. If i tried a side plug and the top plug i got nothing on the multimeter. This was true for both plugs. I dont know if that means anything. Thanks!

It means that you need two new bulbs. The low beams are burnt out. Case closed --

almost. Maybe your alternator is overcharging. That can burn out bulbs rapidly. Measure the voltage at the battery with the engine running. If more than 15.5 volts you have a problem. It should be around 13.5 to 14.5 volts normally.

Checked the voltage at the battery: 14.5 volts. So then it must be the headlights. After talking to friends and family about the issue, it just seemed so likely that it was a headlight switch since both headlights went out at the exact same time. I wonder how often THAT happens? Granted, they are cheap Asian made Xenon knock-offs i got off eBay in March of last year....perhaps thats what i get for buying $8 headlights....I'll go buy good ones and report back. Thanks guys!!

I recently bought a set of xenon headlights. But when I was installing, the clip on the back of the bulb popped off and fell. So I went and got another one, but now i don't know how it goes back on! So if someone could help me out, like with complete steps to put this headlight back in, that'd be great!