We’ve got a 2002 Honda CRV in pretty good condition. The driver’s side headlight seemed to go out, but when I replaced the bulb, I got a very dim light from it. I thought that maybe we had a defective bulb, but I tried a new one, and still get roughly 1/4 brightness from it, and no high-beams.
Any thoughts? Could it be a fuse issue? maybe a short? Just want to have a ballpark idea before either tinkering with it or taking it to a professional.
thanks!
If it’s just one bulb I would guess a bad earth, perhaps a spot of corrosion.
It’s a poor connection or an open circuit. The most likely suspect is the ground (earth) wire, as Vetch mentioned. If it’s dim on both high and low beam, it’s almost certainly the ground.
The basic testing can be done with a traditional test light. With its wire clipped to a good ground (negative battery terminal is great, but any clean unpainted metal on the body or engine should do), touch the probe to the positive battery terminal and note the brightness. Then turn on the headlights (low beam) and touch the probe to the headlight connector terminals in turn. One should light a brightly, this will be the low beam power wire. Switch to high beam, and check the other two terminals, one should light brightly and this will be the high beam power wire. Now clip the test light wire to the battery positive terminal and touch the probe to the remaining headlight connector terminal, which will be the ground wire. It should light brightly. One of the three will fail to light or only light dimly, this is where the problem is. Trace the affected wire until you locate the break (didn’t light at all) or corrosion/poor connection (lit only dimly).