On my 95 I have silverstar bulbs, and they are fine when I have my low beams on. When I switch over to high beams, the driver side light gets bright like it should but the passenger side light actually gets more dim and turns a dull color as opposed to the crisp white color of the silver stars. What causes this? I am guessing it is a wiring problem because when I bought this car I noticed that the harnesses for the headlights have been replaced and its a real bang up job. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks.

-Carson

 

many times that is an indication of a bad ground. the extra electrical current of the high beam can't find its way to ground through the normal path and backtracks through the low beam filament

 

got ya. Is there a gound wire that is in the harness (I know this is a stupid question but I am not at my car right now). Also the thing is it is not just going back thru the low beam, because the light gets yellowish and dull when I hit the high beams, but on low the light has that nice bright crisp light that the silverstars put out. Still think that would be the ground?

 

believe it or not it is a common problem on the 4th gens. I had th same problem and determined it was a bad ground. im sorry i can't give you any more than that, i converted to hids afterwards.

 

yes, there is a ground wire in the wire harness. there is a wire for each connection on the lightbulb socket.

yeah. its funny how it works that way. the electrical current from the high beam is backing up through the low beam filament in the reverse direction which cancels out the low beam current. you have to understand the theory of electricity to become a believer. if you can find the ground wire coming out of the light bulb socket, jumper it to a good ground, like the negative battery terminal. if you have a volt meter, without any jumpers on, and the headlights on high, the ground wire should measure 0 volts. anything else is a sign of a bad ground. i bet that your car will measure a lot more that 0 volts.

i have seen some weird stuff in my days, from a bad socket causing this (the volt meter will measure 0 volts) to the actual bulb itself causing it.

 

Thanks man, I'll check that this weekend.

 

To tell you the truth I'm willing to bet that the wiring on one of the harnesses is incorrect, especially since they did a "bang up job." What likely happened is either the lowbeam or highbeam wire got switched with the ground wire in the harness. Check and if that's the case swap them back to their proper positions

 

do the silverstar bulbs use the same connector as the stock headlamp? if the connector had to be changed, its very likely wires got swapped incorrectly.

 

Adding onto my reply above, I'm thinking someone attempted the 9007 conversion and swapped 2 of the wires incorrectly

 

The ground connection on the 9004 socket is the middle wire. Both high and low beam filiments use that same ground connection. If it were faulty, the whole bulb wouldn't work.

Swap bulbs, left to right and see if it follows the bulb or stays on the same side. If the problem stays on the same side, replace the socket on that side and make sure the 3 wires are in good shape.

If if follows the bulb, you'll have to figure that one out yourself.

 

I took a look at it this weekend and you are right ^^^. I re grounded the faulty light and that did not help, so I switched the wires (non ground wires) and what do you know it worked fine.

 

just switch to HIDs carson. how you been?

 

I don't know how to put them in....never done any research on it I have been good, sold my 87 and trying to get my 95 in better shape....the 98 is still good

 

Glad to hear you figured it out...and that my thinking wasn't haha