Dull R side headlight

[rcottle]

Has anyone had a problem with only the right side headlight being dull? I thought the headlight bulb was bad so I bought a new headlight and plugged it in - no change.. So I checked wires, connector, tried swapping bulb from side to side and that is when I noticed if the left side bulb is unplugged the right side will not work. Having the right side unplugged does not effect the left side at all. The other thing I noticed is that it looks like both filaments are on in the bulb that is dull(can't tell in the other because it is to bright) and when I turn on the high beams the left side gets brighter and the right side gets even dimmer. That makes me think maybe a ground problem but it looks like the ground just goes to the other side and that side seems fine. Do we have any expert electrical guys that could help with this? Electrical is my weakness know only the basics.:help:

[MONSOON]

Possibly the relay is going bad?

[FB71]

What year is it? Makes a difference if it's 88-89 or 90-93

by dull do you mean dim? Dull would be a decay of the reflector in the lamp, dim would be a yellowish, weak light from the bulb.

If it's dim, and gets more dim on highbeam, you definately have a bad ground. The terminal in the bulb socket may be corroded.

[FestYboy]

i'm with Jim on this, bad ground. OR, corrosion along the power wire to the right bulb. check/clean your grounds and inspect the harness that goes across the rad support for any rub throughs.

[FB71]

OR, corrosion along the power wire to the right bulb. check/clean your grounds and inspect the harness that goes across the rad support for any rub throughs.

no, the fact it gets more dim with the highbeams on screams bad ground.

[FestYboy]

tell that to the sunfire i had to rewire that had corrosion on the power side...

[stefan]

Man I cant even tell you how many electrical problems I've had that turned out to be bad grounds/ corroded connectors.

[rancheeto]

mine does it, and it is the ground. the plug was burned on mine so i got a new one, it lasted about a week and it happened again. i rewired the ground and it still doesnt work right.

[rcottle]

found some corrosion in the ground on that side tried to clean it up - made no difference. Maybe a new connector or just run a new ground to the fender behind the airbox? Any one know a easy way to clean corrosion out of a wire other than replacing it?

[tulsacarman]

If you can replace.... replace. My '01 Eclipse started giving me trouble a couple months ago. I drove it home, parked in the garage, remembered I forgot something at the shop and tried to re-start. It turned over but very slowly (like a discharged battery). I rolled it backwards down the drive and she bump started and ran sweet as cream.

It had been getting sluggish to start so I assumed it was the battery (it was an older one). No good, so I assumed the starter was getting bad since they mount it between the exhaust manifold and the block on the 2.4. No good. I was getting a check engine light and eventually an SRS light on the dash so I started to lean toward the computer. I didn't get far enough along with that theory before I noticed one of the grounds from the engine block that ran back through the firewall was smoked.

A friend gave me some advice after letting the thing sit for close to a month and I checked all the grounds. Turned out the negative battery cable was corroded inside the insulation back about 3" from the end. I cut it back, lopped off the OEM connector, unbraided the wire and cleaned alot of corrosion and put a new end on the wire. She fired right up and ran like a top. Hadn't cranked that strong in 6 months!!

Sad part is that the bad battery ground had forced the system to search for a ground somewhere else, that's why it smoked the smaller ground to the block. Turned out to be the wire going to the SRS unit.

I learned a valuable lesson on grounds. If I'd just pulled and cleaned everything when I started getting the slow start it would have saved me a bunch of work and frustration.