three.fiveSE

iTrader: (3)

Well hopefully there is an easy fix on this that I am missing, but my fog lamps (factory ones in the headlight assembly) have gone out. I have PIAA H3's in there, and they have gone out in the past, but it was an easy fuse change. This time they have gone out, but the bulbs are fine and the fuse is fine... Any thoughts?

Side note, the front bumper lights that illuminate the road when your turn signal is on are also out... i have not had the time to check if they are burnt out but doubt it. They have been out for quite a bit longer than my fogs.

Any help is much appreciated!

SmokinMaxSE

iTrader: (1)

Are the Piaa h3's 55W? Any thing higher would either blow a fuse or burn the wire harness.

Check the Relay. Should be in the owners manual. fogs in 04-06 Maxima's don't last even 6 months. Thats normal.

jsmithsole

iTrader: (5)

Did you pull the bulbs and actually check the filament?

04BlackMaxx

go with stock. for some reason or another this car eats aftermarket H3 fogs...i went though 3 different pairs in about 6 months and it was always the same light (i think passenger). I got so tired of it i put back the oem's and they have lasted years no problem.

ubersl

They do go out quite often. When my friend was helping me to replace them, he said that the contact inside was kind of loose which may cause them to burn out. He bent something in there to make the contact more solid. So far so good. And I'm using the cheapest bulbs possible.

three.fiveSE

iTrader: (3)

Yes, i pulled the bulbs out and checked them. I also pulled the fuse under the hood and checked it. Both bulbs went out simultaneously, so I am led to believe it is not the bulbs themselves but something upstream.

po8pimp

put stock bulbs back in and see if they work. If they don't, leave the stock ones in and take it to nissan. Have they troubleshoot the wiring. They have the tools to find shorted wires and what not alot easier than the average joe. I am an electronics technician and for something like multiple lights going out simultaneously I would take that to Nissan and have then figure out. 120 for diagnostic is well worth the headache relieve of raplacing lots of pointless things to track the problem down. Do the basics first and leave the rest to Nissan. Also there are 3 fuse panels on our cars check them all. I can pull the tech manual and see what it says too. give me a couple minutes.

po8pimp

allright looked at the system diagrams and troubleshooting guide and still recommend taking it to nissan. Using the consult 2 diagnostic tool they can pin point your problem which could be located in the BCM, IPDM E/R, wiring harness, connector, the switch that operates the lights, fuses, relays, etc. I bet it would take them once hooked up, less than 15 minutes to find. However if you are still wanting to troubleshoot I can hook you up with the lighting portion of the system diagrams. There are alot of different things you can do to troubleshoot yourself but me directing you over the net would be silly and take forever. let me know if you want the pdf file. Keep us posted on what the issue was and how you got it fixed.

three.fiveSE

iTrader: (3)

Thank you so much for the help. If you have the .pdf and are willing to share it, i would appreciate it. If it takes too much time and effort, I will head to the dealer. I am a DIYer, not so much to save money, but because in some weird way i enjoy it...

xorbitman

iTrader: (1)

Good adice po8pimp!

Just a foot note on the side: I have the PIAA H3 ION Plasma Yellow fogs over 2 years! And that's up here in Montreal with extremes of temps -40F to +40F! (Japanese PIAAs).
And the Yellow are cool and mean looking! Makes the eyes look cross!

po8pimp

http://x.nissanhelp.com/forums/Knowl....html?catid=91 here it is. I can upload it to a file transfer site if you would like, but this site has it for free. you just have to register with them which of course is free and they allow two uploads a day from them. I recommend you save it to your desktop and then open it from the desktop. If you don't save it and accidently close the pdf then you will have two tries at it and your done for 24 hours. Good luck and if you need help let us know.

three.fiveSE

iTrader: (3)

Yeah I have the PIAA H3 Plasma Ion as well. There was a time when I quickly flashed my brights a few times to annoy a friend in front of my car and they went out, but I stressed the fuse a bit too much... after the fuse was replaced they worked fine for about a year and half until just recently.

I will check out the site... thanks for all the advice!