No low beam headlights

10735 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by ian441, Jan 20, 2020

H11F

Discussion Starter · Nov 10, 2016

Looking for a little assistance.

Last week I noticed that the passenger headlight seemed a bit dim when I got home. Next day - nothing wrong with it, all lights running just fine.

Unfortunately, last night I took off for an 8-hour overnight drive. After stopping to get gas and taking off I quickly noticed I had no headlights... I could put the highbeams on, but those seemed more dim than usual. In fact - that is how I had to make over 6 hours of the drive, with very dim high beams on.

I have not received any fault warnings on the car. It is an ST with HID headlights.

Unfortunately, I have to make a night time drive back this weekend and no shops have openings as Remembrance Day is tomorrow.

Any thoughts on what the cause of this would be appreciated.

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H11F

Discussion Starter · #2 · Nov 11, 2016 (Edited)

Ok, so I took a look at the fuses, specifically F74 in the passenger fuse box, as well as F43 and F39 in the engine fuse box - they all look good.

I went to restart the car and noted that the driver side lights came on.

Thoughts?

Edit: Started up and the driver side hid light came on. Drive down the street then it suddenly turns off. No passenger light the entire time.

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Comatose

· #3 · Nov 11, 2016

Sounds like it might be a loose connection or bad wiring. I'd check to make sure the plugs are connected securely - turn the car on, switch the headlights to "on" (not auto), then try wiggling the wires and the connectors to see if that has any effect.

It might be worth testing the light sensor used for automatic headlight mode. With the car on, switch the headlights to "auto" and try covering and uncovering the photo sensor on the dash to see if that is working properly. There should be a 2-3 second delay between covering the sensor and the lights turning on.

I'm not sure what year ST you have but from your join date I'm guessing 2013. Have you have the headlight recall for the LED daytime running lights done? When I brought mine in they needed to replace the entire headlight assembly, then re-program the body control module (BCM) so the LED strips worked properly as the daytime running lights. If not, it might be a good opportunity to get new headlights.

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pyroman131

· #4 · Nov 14, 2016

Could also be a grounding issue too - not sure how the STs with OEM HIDs handle it, but if the grounding point is weak on the car or not properly secured, it could explain why the lights are suddenly powering off.

For my situation, I had professionally retrofitted Morimoto HIDs in my car and I had a grounding issue where the lights would flicker off and the instrument cluster would display errors including "hood latch open", etc. It turns out that the grounding point my kit was connected to had a loose connection.

Run through all your wiring and see if anything is loose as suggested above. Based on how you are describing the issue, it doesn't seem likely that you have bad bulbs or a bad ballast. After all, the problem was originally your passenger side, which is now kaput. And now your driver's side appears to be working intermittently. The likelihood of both high-end HIDs failing simultaneously is highly unlikely.

Since you already inspected fuses and reset the car, the last step is to take it to the dealer and let them service it for you. At this point they'll most likely just replace all the lighting hardware on your car.

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UnfocusedST

· #5 · Nov 14, 2016

Could be bad ballasts.

Sent from another garage.

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Carlson

· #6 · Nov 14, 2016

Motor vehicle Vehicle Hood Vehicle door Automotive exterior

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ian441

· #7 · Jan 20, 2020

Hi Guys.

So I have a 2016 Ford Focus that was crashed I changed the complete front, and Airbag kit. But when I fitted the Xenon headlights lights they are working but will not turn off at the switch they are constantly on, until I knock off the car then they turn off, my foglights do not work either front or rear. It also gives a headlamp malfunction service required. Could you give me some advice? Thanks.

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