The problem lies within the system itself, not in the bulbs/ballast because when directly powered up they light up just fine. I have checked for continuity throughout the headlight to the fusebox and it checked out fine.

The problem started when my other car's battery died and I didn't have jumper cables, so I took the battery out of my s2k to put into my prelude (to drive home). After I got home, I put the battery back in, but had the terminals mixed up so when i connected it, the hids fired up, horn sounded, radio went on etc. etc. it was on there for probably 2 seconds before I took it off. I inspected all the fuses and wires and they all appear good. (everything else is fixed, and only the headlight problem remains)

So heres the conditions that I have collected in the time i took to investigate this.
-when headlights are switched on, the amber corners do turn on and the tail lights turn on as well
-even though the ambers turn on, the HIDs dont fire up and the highbeam doesn't work either.
-Fuses are good, I checked all the fuses in both fuse boxes
-happened after I hooked up the battery backwards
-as with any electrical problems, I checked my grounds and they are torqued down good

Some possibilities that I thought of:
The headlight relays (doubtful)
The switch (not sure)
The HID unit itself (im pretty sure they're ok cuz they can power on)
Some unit inside the s2k fuse box that I heard of today. (dont even know what it is)

So what do u guys think, and whats the next step in the troubleshooting this? I'd like to be able to drive topdown to prom.

 

switch isn't making contact

 

im not trying to be disrespectful, but how sure are you of this?

 

i'm not but you probably blew the shutter that allows current flow.
better check with a multimeter

 

hmm interesting, today i found the fuses in my amp, the bridge wasn't popped but i noticed something odd about them.. was wondering if this could be the reason my lights aren't working. (haven't checked yet, but will do 2m)



notice how the left and right sides are black/fried?

 

well then good thing your fuse took the hit of that strike

 

i looked today, the fuses were fine and i replaced them just to be sure.. so im guessing either my switch or relays are fried. When i open my underhood fusebox i do smell the burnt electrical smell.. so i think ill start w/ a relay first. I believe that the same thing happened w/ the headlight relay or switch as the fuse pictured above. To me it makes sense since when i turn the switch on for headlights, the tails+corners turn on. So this weekend ill hit it w/ a probe again and see if bypassing the switch will fire up my pretty lights again. If thats the problem, it's gravy from there. =] thanks for the help

 

can this be a relay causing this? reverse polarity on a negative circuit causing dmg to the relay

 

relays can be burnt, yes. But it is pretty expensive to get those matsuba relays if your s2000 uses them.

 

im borrowing a probe tomorrow, does anyone know if a body/electrical shop will be able to tell whats wrong for a reasonable price? i feel like taking it to the shop is equivalent to bending over

 

probably 50 bucks for a diagnose only. There isn't much to test there. Only the relay for the headlights from the fuse box under the dash and hood, switch and harness

 

back from the dead, haha 4months without headlights. welp im about to sell the car and would like to knock out this problem. so far today i took the headlights/bumper and all that jazz off and did what i could

here's what i've covered so far and would appreciate any insight.
-replaced the headlight switch
-used a small 12v battery charger to test ballast/bulbs, they fire up beautifully.
-ground hasn't been moved ever.. so i went ahead and regrounded it to the same spot after a thurough cleaning and torqued it down good for contact.

i started all this at 10PM night, so 2m i will be re-testing things i've covered before
-relay
-fuse

i noticed the headlights behave the same with and without the relay in there, so that's very possible to be the problem. the symptom is that the amber diffusers light up, but the HIDs do not. since the amber diffusers do light, that leads me to believe the headlight switch is making contact. another possibility i thought of could be the harness itself, perhaps a pin got fried since the incident i had with reverse polarity on the battery back in january.

did i miss anything? im really ready to sell this car to pick up another asap, and would this would be the last issue for the car that is within my power.

so just to recap, the only things to my knowledge that are still possible as a cause would be the relay, fuse, or the harness itself. and no im not retarded, i did swap the fuse to no avail. but i don't have these mini fuses lying around and since they were all in the circuit, i'm not gonna count it as known-good. and for the relays, they don't stock them how do i test the harness with a probe?

do i poke each terminal according to wire color to see what feedback i get?

thanks

 

well i ripped the fusebox apart to see whats there, everything looks normal. no frayed wires, pins look fine and plugs look normal. when i looked in the diagram i noticed that the headlights go through a diode. but i can't find the location of it in the car, from what i've read a diode passes current and since i had the incident with the battery, im thinking this could very well be the issue. anyone ever have issues with a diode?