Hey all.

I'm new here, so sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question. I have a 1990 Honda Accord and the headlights started blinking. This carried on for about three or four days until they just quit altogether. Now, I have some mechanical knowledge, but am pretty new to this electrical stuff. I have a soldering iron and can heat shrink, but probably cannot do anything that isn't incredibly basic. Here's what I've figured out so far:

As both headlights blinked and quit at the same time, I do not believe the problem to be the bulbs, as they should have burned out at different times.
The fuzes both look good, and there are separate left and right headlight fuzes, going back to them going out at the same time.
I have been driving it (in the day, of course) for about four days now, and no trouble with any of the electrical components/starting the car up, so I do not believe it to be an alternator issue (especially with my 8 year old battery, lol).

So far, I, with my YouTube-gotten knowledge, think that it could be the lighting relay. The internal and dash lights still come on, however, and I don't really know what I'm doing. I figured that it would be wise to consult some people who know more than I do. I am still putting my '96 Accord after bent valves and an engine for a swap that fell through, so that is currently not driveable, and I would really like to be able to leave my house at night. Any info/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, or if I'm just in over my head and need to just bite the bullet and take it to a place that specializes in automotive electrics.

Thanks so much!

-TotallyHondan

 

Does your high beams work? If they work, the relay is not the problem since the same relay is used for both high and low beams.

Do you have a multi-meter or voltmeter to test?

 

My high beams do not work, but my blinkers and other lights do, if that info helps. Sorry for my lack of electrical knowledge. I can definitely get my hands on a voltmeter from a buddy of mine. I will test the headlight plugins and get back to you on that if it helps.

Once again, please pardon my electrical ignorance.

 

Before we move to any tests with a voltmeter. Since both high and low beams don't work, try swapping the lighting relay with the dimmer relay to see if your low beams work. If the low beam works after the relay swap, then the lighting relay probably is faulty.

The low beam uses the lighting relay only, while the high beam used both lighting relay and dimmer relay.

 

Thanks so much. It's kind of late over here right now, but I will try this out first thing in the morning and get back to you. I appreciate all your help.

 

So, the dimmer relay has one too many prongs to fit into the lighting relay socket, but I have the lighting relay out of my 1996 Honda Accord, and it seems to fit in. Is this okay to use, or will it short out my system? Sorry, thanks so much.

 

The relay from the '96 is the same part number as for the '90 Accord. It should be fine to test.

The Honda parts sites show the dimmer relay to be 4P; but, there were more part numbers for a 90 Accord dimmer relay.

 

Okay, thank you. Both my brights and my low beams work well now, and I am glad to be able to drive at night once again. Thank you for all your help with this. Glad I had a 'parts car' on hand.

 

Great, glad it worked out.