Hello all,
3 out of the 4 bulbs on my accord light on fine. Only one doesnt turn on at all, tested the connector and there seems to be voltage?
Let me draw out a small visual here, the "x" means its doesnt work.
The "O" is a working headlight bulb.

Front End 94 Accord Coupe ----> \O O\ honda /X O/

All other lights work low beams and high.
I also checked the connector but it shows there is voltage.

Also I believe the connector that goes to the radiator is not working, can this be related?

Thanks guys any suggestions or pointers are greatly appreciated

 

Did you check for complete voltage and ground at the connector or did you just check for the hot with the meter grounded directly to the body?
Have you verified the bulb itself is good?

 

How do I go about checking for complete voltage and ground?
During the weekend I connected a bit of wire to the chassis to add more ground and my headlight started working. I would turn on the low beams and then the brights and it would work perfectly with the switch. I was ecstatic that it was fixed.

Today I tried to power on the lights and now the light that was previously not turning on and supposively fixed, stays on Full Brightness. It will not switch to a low beam.

What could be wrong what is the first step I can take to diagnose the problem.
Thanks Guys

 

Sounds strange but sometimes tapping the headlight cover fairly hard will bring the light back. Try it.

 

Have not gotten home yet to give the headlight a good smacking
A Buddy from work says maybe adding more ground on the other headlight might do the trick?

Any other suggestions guys?

 

Forgot to mention they are all new bulbs and all bulb connectors show current when tested.

The tester I have has a pointed metal tip with a bulb that lights up when there is power

 

did u check fuses? there are fuses under the hood and drivers side kick panel

 

Did you give it a good smack? I wasnt kidding. It works sometimes.

 

I did, I even swapped out most of the fuses since i have another 97 accord which is almost identical except its a sedan. It still did not work.
This car was an a minor crash a few months back and have been slowly bringing it back to life. Everything is pretty much working except this light issue and radiator doesnt seem to turn on.

 

I actually did, I was laughing as I was doing it, hoping that something that has baffled me for the last two weeks could be solved with a simple smack.
Alas, it was not to be. The light just stays on Bright beams the low beam function doesnt work.

A buddy of mine told me to add more ground to the chassis on the left headlight side. So I did and now both will stay on bright beams as soon as they are turned on, no low beam function.

Any other suggestions? I will try anything really at this point lol

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

 

Whatever bulb isnt working, should have two wires going to the plug. I would check both to ground...one should have a full 12V(When energized) the other should have none(On the voltage setting). Now check the one with no voltage, check to the ground lug on your battery on ohms(Continuity) You should have 5ohms or less...and more, then your grouns isnt good...and you need to find out where exactly theat wire grounds out at and repair the faulty ground.

 

Thanks for your reply.
I checked the bulb wires on the left headlight and when energized reads about 3 volts. I checked the right side and it reads about 10.5 volts when energized.
Can you elaborate on how to "check to the ground lug on battery" what settings do I put on multimeter?
Any videos or links for reading are greatly appreciated.

 

The plug should have two wires. Set you VOM to voltage DC, then take your leads and touch one to each of the two pins inside the plug you removed from the bulb. You should have 12V. If you do not, then I would check each pin inside of the plug of teh affected bulb. Touch the red lead to one of the pins inside the plug, and touch the black lead to the negative post of the battery. One should indicate 12V, one should indicate nothing.

Whichever pin indicates nothing(No voltage), take your VOM and set it to continuity(Ohms). Now touch the red lead to that pin again, and again touch teh black lead to the negative post of the battery. You should read .1ohms...but not more than 5 ohms.

If you reading only 3 volts on the plug(Checked to the negative post on the battery), then your positive lead has an issue somewhere...adn you need to find it. However, if it has 12V to the battery...then the issue is your ground. You either need to find the ground issue in the ground wire...or run a new ground directly to the negative post of the battery.

 

If only one headlight works, you can comfortably drive at night here in Miami. Half the cars here have only one head light and one brake light working. I makes driving at night a lot more interesting.