I recently noticed that the (low beam) headlights on my '97 Maxima SE are not working. Apparently, I have been driving for a while with just my clearance lights on (until a police officer informed me that I'd better get my headlights working). I have fiddled with the headlight switch and the clearance lights, turn signals, brake lights and high beams work fine, but my regular (low beam) headlights do not turn on.
Does it make sense that they aren't working because both headlight bulbs could have blown (at the same time)? Is it possible that a fuse blew, but the high beams and other lights are still working?

Any thoughts/ideas?

Thanks for your help.

 

i thought lighting wasnt a stoppable offense?

 

Since there are different filaments for your low and high beams, it is totally possible that your low beams are burnt out (happened to me, and is normally how they burn out). I would take them out and inspect them--if you can see that one of the filaments is broken or damaged, then replace them.

If they appear not to be or you can't tell, then maybe ask a friend with 9004 headlights (I'm not sure what other cars have them, someone chime in here) and working low beams if you can borrow one of his bulbs to test yours out. Obviously if the low beam works with the new bulb, your bulb is gone. If it doesn't, then something else is wrong. You could also try getting a single 9004 bulb and doing this, and if it's something else then just save it for when one of your bulbs actually do go out.

I'm not sure if the low/high beams use separate fuses or not, but that's nothing a little research couldn't fix. =)

You would be wrong.
It's a safety issue. Definitely stoppable. People get stopped because a single taillight is out, they will definitely get stopped both headlights.

 

Thanks for your help. I wasn't actually pulled over for the headlights - a police officer just brighted me and then pulled alongside to tell me