BOTH low beams don't work
 

I'm in a bit of a pickle and come (back) here to you guys for some help (I hope). I figured I'd be able to figure this out on my own and I'm getting to the end of the line in terms of figuring this stupid thing out. Long story short, my brother-in-law stole the Maxima from my wife. She retrieved the car to find a bunch of things wrong with the car one of which included the headlights ONLY working on the high beams. I looked at the easy fuses first. All fuses were fine. Then I realized that the brother-in-law and his wife had some fights and the windshield was smashed (Tiger Woods fashion) and the rearview mirror was ripped off. I thought it might have something to do with the sensor in the headlight for the auto headlights and the dealer tells me no (now that I think about it, after I post this, I'm going to check that because WHEN do you ever trust the dealer?!?)

Anyway, the wiring diagram for the headlights is pretty lacking in the FSM. I'm shocked. It shows the power going to the fuse block in the engine bay by the battery through a 20A fuse. I've got power at both of them. Then, it shows the power going to the relay. The troubleshooting in the FSM tells me that there should be constant power at 1, 3, 6 in that relay. I've got power at only 3. 1 has about 0.3v and 3 has 0. I *SWEAR* that last week I had power at all but not sure. I also *SWEAR* I had power at at least 1 and 3 this morning but may just be losing my mind! Somehow the power is not getting from the fuse block to the relay and it's for BOTH headlights. The FSM shows an electrical connector in between the fuse and the relay (E75) but I cannot find that. ANYONE KNOW WHERE E75 IS?

I did do a quick search and most problems seem to be in relation to one or the other headlight not working. My problem is that BOTH don't work. Any ideas? I've completely removed the front bumper and headlights to try to get better access and remove the headlamp assembly. As a side note, it REALLY pisses me off that years ago we had to worry about punks stealing these headlights and it would take them 30 seconds and it took me a few hours... I know they didn't care about breaking stuff and that accounts for some of the time but still...

To start with, what year is the car? The 5.0 gen and 5.5 gen are different. Secondly, is this a Canadian car with the DRL module?

^This, a very good post except the year and origin aren't listed.

I'm assuming it's a US car without DRL, and also assumning it's a 5.5 because you mentioned stealing the headlights, which is only common on the 5.5s.

I will try to have a look through the FSM tonight to point you in the right direction.

For now I just want to make sure you understand, you can have power, but if there's no ground, it wont work. A lot of headlight circuits are ground triggered, this means they're fed power as soon as the key turns on, but not fed ground until you turn the headlights on. This means you must check for GROUND AS WELL as power when performing your checks.

Sounds like an issue with the AUTO light control module, or more likely, the Steering column stalk (headlight switch). If they were getting rowdy or rough in the car, they could have damaged the stalk, have a close look at it.

Crap! Sorry, I really did mean to mention both in my post.

Car is 2002 and it is a US car. Everything worked fine when the brother-in-law stole it.

I do understand that I need ground as well but I haven't even gotten to that point yet! The power isn't there on two of the points in the relay and then I've gone back as far as the fuse box. There's power going through the fuse box but it seems that there is supposed to be power going from that fuse (10A, spot #13) to the smart control module. I got power but only a fraction of a volt if I remember. From the wiring diagram I see the ignition tied into that and wondered if maybe I need power to see anything at the smart control module... it's such a PITA to get to that stupid module.

I had thought of ground too but the power side is so damned wonky right now I didn't even check grounds yet.

Thanks, a friend mentioned the stalk as well and I'll check that tomorrow to see. Would that affect JUST the low beams though? I'd think that would affect low and high and possibly turns as well?

Yeah, these two losers were more than rowdy if you only saw the condition of the car when my wife retrieved it. I feel bad for the car... it's had a rough life between my wife mistreating it and now these idiots :(

It is in the relay box by the power steering pump with the headlight relays.

Since each low beam has its own fuse, you would have to have 2 blown fuses. I think the suggestion to check the headlight switch is an excellent idea as this would be common to both headlights.

Yeah, I think I saw it buried down underneath. I am absolutely destroying the box though trying to rip it apart. I decided to take a break yesterday and do yardwork before I completely destroyed it.

I agree that it SHOULDN'T be fuses but with some yokel that knows NOTHING about cars, I wouldn't be surprised at anything if he were able to somehow blow BOTH fuses by playing around with something. I was hopeful that it was something simple though when I started.

Thanks for the suggestions guys... I have renewed energy (at least until I'm 10 minutes in) to tackle this hopefully today. I'll start with the stalk

Checked the fuses inside the car as well? And the ballasts are plugged in correct? Do the parking lights work? Signal lights?

Yes, I did check the fusebox inside the car :(
I plugged, unplugged, and made sure the balasts were plugged correctly. They were connected until I disassembled everything to troubleshoot a bit
All of the other lights work fine... high beams, parking lights, side markers, turn signals. It's *JUST* the low beams.

I'm going to pull up the FSM on the garage computer and take a look at the stalk

Stalk checks out ok :(

Grounds are ok as well.

I'm about to play with the auto mirror.

Even though all of the fuses look ok, I swapped them out and even tested them... everything is ok with the fuses.

good luck
 

i had it happen to mine also and still nothing good luck

I just discovered that I *DO* in fact have power at the relays. I was *****uming that the numbers on the relay were correct. I'm supposed to have power at 1, 3, 6. Once I got the box apart, I saw that I was checking at the wrong terminals. Went by color wire and I do have power now... so I'm following the wires now on the schematic...

Ok, my problem is solved. Unfortunately I have no huge breakthrough that will help anyone else with this problem in the future.

I checked the power from the relay with the switch on and I was getting power to the connector at the headlight (terminal 1 on that connector). So I'm scratching my head thinking it's either two bad ballasts (at the same time though?) or two bad headlight bulbs (again, odd). When my wife first got the car back, I quickly checked it one morning as I was a few minutes early heading out to the track and the back "waterproof" twist-on piece was gone on the driver side. I started to play with removing the bulb and it just disintegrated in my hand. The other side was intact (or so I thought). I took apart and put back together the passenger side and it turns out I wasn't properly connected.

I discovered this when I decided to pull the bulb out of my FX to see if it was the same. It looked the same and I tried to use it but it didn't fit properly (there are two cutouts on the "collar" on the bulb and the FX bulb was slightly different. I didn't want to take the chance with the high voltage of just connecting it and not having it properly secure so I put it back in my car. Headlights didn't work! I was VERY careful handling the bulb so I was PISSED. Took it back apart and I didn't properly twist on the wire connection to the bulb. So I went and looked at the Maxima again and the wire/balast connect attaches to the bulb but then twists 90 degrees or so. Did that, turned the headlights on, and it worked.

So now I just need the twist-on backing and bulb for the driver side... and to put the car back together again... and to figure out a HUGE oil leak. Hopefully that's as simple as just removing the lower oil pan, re-gasketing it, and done!

The auto mirror had nothing to do with the lights.... If you throw something like a wallet on your dash where the windshield starts on top of that circle of a sensor, the wallet fools the sensor, thinking its dusk turning the head lights on...

The sensor behind the mirror detects when its dark or not to activate the auto dimming feature...

Thanks for pointing that out... I never did get to looking at the auto mirror. Good thing I didn't get that far... would've just been ANOTHER thing to put back together all for a really simple thing ;(

Your fx uses the d2s while our maximas use the d2r fyi. One has a band on it the other doesnt. Just good to know. I have a pair of d2rs sitting here from when I did my retro. PM me ill let it go cheap.

I'm glad you mention that because I never even thought to look on here for bulbs. My instinct was just to print out the part number and have my wife go to Nissan this week on her day off.

As for the difference between the bulbs, now that you mention it, I do remember seeing an R and an S but couldn't remember what letters it was when posting earlier.

Thanks to luvlexus101 my problem is now solved. A new bulb on the driver side and all is well again. Replaced a leaking oil pan (oil pan flange rusted next to bolt holes!) and the car is good for another 200k miles!

Thanks everyone for the help and hopefully at least some of the information in my troubleshooting efforts can help someone else