Left low beam out, but high beam works
 

I have a '93 Maxima SE.

For some reason, my left low beam headlight doesn't work. But, it works on high beam. I've replaced the bulb, checked the fuses, and looked for burned wires - Nothing is wrong.

Also, at times the cruise doesn't work and there is a clicking under the dash - sounds like a circuit breaker clicking on and off.

Any ideas???

Re: Left low beam out, but high beam works
 

sounds like it might be the wiring, check again.

else, have a mechanic look at it. you can prolly fix it yourself tho :goofy:

Re: Left low beam out, but high beam works
 

hey what kind of bulbs do you have because if you have ever had xenon bulbs or anything like that for some reason the low beam conections get burnt up and only the high beams work. try putting on another headlight bulb connector. just make sure you soder? the connection because it is a powerful connection. before this just check all your relays for the lights. I actually had to replace the harness because i burnt up both connectors.

I've had the low beam go out by itself on other cars simply because its the one that gets used the most. Although, my '91 had the high beam go out recently and not the low beam, which doesn't make sense. It was a regular bulb, nothing fancy or extra bright. I've noticed that same clicking noise in the dash in mine for the 1 1/2 years that I've owned my Maxima. It sounds the same as the noise I hear when I press down on the brake to unlock the gear selector to shift out of park. I'm wondering if the two clicking noises are related. Is yours an automatic as well?

Yes, mine is an automatic. What did you do to fix the problem with your high beam?

I just replaced the bulb on both sides and haven't had any problems since. I know that doesn't make much sense, but its worked so far.

Interesting discussion. My left low beam is also out on my 93GXE. I just assumed that it was the bulb, and never thought about the fact that there's only one bulb in there. What's the procedure for troubleshooting this problem. I haven't looked at it yet, and haven't even looked under the hood of my car yet!!! (In my defense: I just returned from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba 2 days ago in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, and my wife came before my car).:kiss:

On my '89 the high beams don't usually work. The left one actually worked once just now, but when I turned the brights off and on again, it stopped working. The bulbs both test fine (both filaments each).

I picked up the Chilton's manual this weekend, and upon studying the headlight wiring diagrams, I noticed that the lights aren't relay controlled. The current goes through the fuse, the lighting switch, and then to the lights. What this means is that the switch has to handle high current. If they're not designed very carefully, high-current switches tend to fail soon.

Most other cars (that I've driven) use relay-controlled lights. The control switch in the car just turns on the relay (the coil on the relay is very low current). The relay switches the high-current path to the lights themselves.

I've got a feeling that if I rewire my brights to use relays that they'll work again. This seems like a cheaper and more reliable alternatively to replacing the light switch. Does anyone's experience back this up?

Re: Left low beam out, but high beam works
 

Hi Guys,

I have a '90 Max SE. In Canada daytime running lights are required and on those cars the headlights have relays. Check your manuals to see if relays are installed on the U.S. vehicles. That was the problems on my vehicle. A little resoldering of the contacts and the problems disappeared.

I had the same problem with my cruise. The clicking is your relay. It is located about 6 inces to the right of the fuse box under the dash, I had to bypass the rlay to give it power, it works fine ever since.
As far as the headlights, I might know, Are they both out or just one?

Forgot to mention, that the headlights on third gens are wired in series not seperately, i.e. the right headlight gets power from the left, not from a central relay.

That seems to contradict the diagram shown in the Chilton manual. It shows each light (left and right) as a completely independent circuit, each with its own fuse. High and low beam are on the same fuse and circuit up until the light switch.

I've looked at the Canadian diagram too, and it is similar to the US diagram, except they have extra parallel paths for the daytime running lights. So they're not really relay driven either. There is a set of relays for the daytime lights, but this is just added on in parallel to the normal lighting circuit, which is mostly the same as the US version.

On both versions, there's another parallel circuit for the high beams for the alarm system. This circuit is also relay driven.

The whole headlight circuit design doesn't really make a lot of sense. If the headlights had been designed from the start to use relays to drive them, a whole lot fewer high-current wires would have been needed. It's like they started out with a cheapo simple system, then added stuff on layer by layer, and never stopped to see how the overall final product could have been done better if it were designed all in one go.

Oh well, enough ranting. I'll just go and fix my lights.