1997 Maxima, Both high beams don't work, regular lights work. What to do?
 

I am not terribly mechanically inclined, but my high beams were never terribly bright to begin with compared to my normal headlight brightness, but they at least turned on and worked.

Recently I go to turn on my high beams and I get no light, other then my fog lights. Regular lights still work. I am not sure which fuse is for my high beams, but I believe this car uses one bulb each that does both high and low beams, and the low clearly are both working. I find it odd that both high beams would go out at the same time.

I tried to find information to see if fuses have been blown, but haven't come up with much, from what I have checked though both fuses for h/lamp L and h/lamp R are both still in good shape and not blown. Any thoughts?

Fogs turn off when highs turn on.
Have you checked the bulbs?

Ya, maybe this car didn't come equipped with fog lights anyway, I don't know really. I am not sure how to *check* my bulbs to be honest. I haven't replaced the bulbs though, the only reason for that being is that I am rather tight on funds, and I didn't want to just rush out and buy new bulbs if that wasn't the problem. The reason I was skeptical if it was bulbs was because both high beams went out literally at the same time, despite the fact that the regular lights still work on it.

I believe there are two ways to activate the hi beams. Pushing the stalk forward turns them on and holds them on. Pulling on the stalk flashes the hi beams. Do the hi beams work in either of those positions? Could be an issue with the stalk or both bulbs are out.

I had tried both pushing and pulling with no success with either of them.

The 4th gen bulb has 2 filament "circuits" so to say. So if one of these circuits burns out, it's possible to lose either the low beam or high beam while the other one still works. If both driver and pass side bulbs fail at the same time, that is perfect failure, your bulbs are of the same quality.

It is strange for both high beams to go out at the same time. It could be the high beam filament burned out in both bulbs. The headlight switch has separate section for the left and right headlights, too.

This sounds a lot like a Canadian car with a bad daytime running light (DRL) module.

So is there only one fuse per headlight? And that fuse is for both high and low beams? I checked fuse 53 and 54 which said H/Lamp L and H/Lamp R and both of those fuses are fine. I agree, that it seems very odd that the high beam filaments would go bad on both lights at the same time...hence my hesitancy to just run out and buy replacement bulbs. Do you guys think I should try replacing the bulbs though next?

I would replace the bulbs. Or at least just remove and inspect them. You'll be able to see the filament broken if that's the problem. Go for the one on the driver side, easier to get to