What is the matter with my headlight? You would have asked this question previously, or you might ask it in the future. When it comes to your automobile, it does not matter how careful you are. These problems do pop up with time. But worry not, I have organized the information on Problems with headlights and how to diagnose them to help you in those situations.
Headlights are the crucial part of any vehicle and the most sensitive one. They are necessary while driving at night to prevent serious accidents. But if your headlights have gone off or they suddenly stopped working while driving. Then some quick inspections can help you recover your headlights back.
Burnt headlight fuse
If your headlights went off while driving. Then the first step will be to check your headlights fuse. Open the hood of your car and locate a plastic box with Fuse-Box written on it. Remove the top of the fuse box. On the backside of the cover, you will see different symbols with numbers written on them. Find the fuse for headlights and then take out the relevant fuse. Inspect the fuse for the broken wire, If the wire is damaged. Then use the spare fuse present inside the fuse box. If you find no spare one and you are in the middle of the road. Then just simply bypass the fuse by replacing a wire to short both lines.
Cracked wires
Now you have checked the fuses and found nothing wrong with them, and you have also tried the short circuit, but it didn’t work either. In that case, the next thing that could be causing the problem is the broken wires. Broken wires could be the reason behind the headlight not working. Unfortunately, You need a tool called a Multimeter to diagnose the wires. But if the device is not available, you can do a general inspection for the cuts and cracks in the wire. Another way is to remove the harness behind the headlights and replace them. Sometimes corrosion on the electric harness does cause poor connection and results in low output. Replacing them can fix the problem for a while.
Stuck headlight relay
After doing the general checkup, Now you are sure that the fuses are fine. The wires are intact. And the harness is clean too. The next thing that comes in your checklist is the malfunctioning relay. Most people don’t know that there are two relays for headlights. One is present inside the fuse box, and the other is under your steering cover. To check your car relay. You will need another guy. Ask him to sit inside the vehicle, and you, put your ear close to the car fuse box. Now signal him to turn the headlights on and off. If you hear a clicking noise from the fuse box. Then it means your fuse box relay is good. Now the second relay is located under the steering wheel cover. And in most cases, this relay goes bad. To check it, you will need a screwdriver. Take out the screws from the steering wheel cover and then repeat the same steps. If you find that both or one of the relays is bad. Then replace it with a spare one. But if you don’t have a spare one, A common trick is to strike or throw it on your car mat. Sometimes the dirt that builds up inside the relay causes this problem. And by throwing it. The relay will start working efficiently.
Broken bulb
If you are still unable to find the problem, even going through all the steps. Then chances are your car headlight bulbs are gone bad. In some cars, there are different bulbs for low and high beams. Try to check both of them. If one is working and the other is not, or if both are not working, it could mean the bulbs are gone bad. Now it is time to buy new bulbs for your car. There are several headlight bulbs available in the market, due to which choosing the right one could be a difficult task. In that scenario, I highly recommend reading the article “Top 10 LED headlight bulbs”. There you can find the details on how to find the correct bulb for your car.
Dim headlights
Your car headlights may be working fine, But the visibility is so poor that you need to focus your eyes to see the things at the front. Almost 90% of people face this issue. The main reason behind it is the dirty or oxidized plastic. With time headlights plastic does go oxidized because of UV rays coming from the sun. There are only two solutions to this problem. Number one is to replace them. But that could be a costly job. The second and the most reliable one is to use the headlight restoration kit. Headlight restoration kit not only brings the natural glow of your headlights back but also improves the road vision for a better experience at night.
