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Dim Headlights? Check this...

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 2:39 pm
by Dave
I've seen a number of posts on dim headlights in the past. Resistance in the stock fuse panel from corrosion seems to be the general culprit. After I yanked out my OEM fuse panel and installed a modern one with blade style fuses, I still had dim headlights. I chocked it up to lousy wiring and left it as a project for another day.

One of my recent projects has been to move all my relays from under the hood to inside the car for a cleaner looking engine bay. As I was testing the headlight relay with my volt ohm meter to figure out how to wire it back up, I discovered A LOT of resistance. 12.6 volts in (normal battery voltage with the engine off) gave me 10.9 volts out! Ouch.

So, if you've cleaned up your fuse panel and still have dim lights, try cleaning up or replacing your headlamp relay before you go gutting out the wiring!

Happy motoring.

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 4:14 pm
by TR
I'd suggest replacing the relay with modern ones or at the least, a very simple fix (for better lights and fire safety) is to use the output from the stock relay as the trigger wires for modern relays...TR