Head light

[Ed]

Hey there,

My driver's side head light is not as bright as the passenger side. I replaced both lights about 5 months ago. And this problem occured last week. I checked the headlights themselves by swapping left to right, right to left and the passenger side works perfect. I have cleaned the contacts on the connector plugs (the one to the bulb and the one by the horn). The light stays the same, no matter if high beam or low beam it stays wizz yellow. Besides trying to backtrack the wiring and making sure all contacts are clean, not to mention trying to find where the wire's go. Is there anything anybody can suggest?

Thanks,

ED

[EScanlon]

If you are a new owner of a Z, let me introduce you to this common term amongst us. Kind of like the Doctors' "Take two aspirin, and call me in the morning", with Z cars, this is one of the MAJOR and MOST COMMON both problems and repairs.

Don't just visually check your fuse, do a continuity check on it. Also, make sure that the connectors for the fuse are clean and bright and that they are making good contact on the fuse.

After this, you now get to the fun of tracing down the problem.

I would recommend you first look at the headlight connections. Don't just look at where they connect to the headlight, but also intermediate connections.

By the way, if you are new to the Z's, Welcome to the Club!

[Rob]

Sounds like the earth wire isn't connected.

When this wire isn't connected the headlight bulb seems to earth itself through the high beam filment which makes both high and low beam glow dimly.

Easy way to check this is to run a temporary wire from the earth pin on the bulb (not sure which one it is - anybody know?) and touch it to a good earth - the front bumper comes to mind. If I'm right the headlight should glow brightly.

Then it's just a matter of figuring out why there is no earth to that headlight, or cheating and running a separate earth wire to the body

[Royce]

I had the exact same problem with my drivers side headlight and it was the fuse holders being a little loose. I took out the fuse and bent them in just a touch and next time I tried it my light worked great. Of course yours may be a little different but I would give this a try before you spend money on any new test equipement.

Let us know how it turns out. Have fun!

[Ed]

Thanks for steering me in the right direction. I obviously started at the wrong end of the problem.

It was a burnt fuse. Both lights work now.

Thanks