High beams!

[Sulaco]

One thing after another.

I'm sorry, I did a search on this but didn't find this problem anywhere.

I don't like people who make thread after thread anymore than the rest of you.

On my way home from work tonight I'm driving along with my headlights on. I enter a clear straight-way and push my switch forward to engage high beams. They come on for a split second then go completely dead. I panic and switch back to low-beam--which still works. I drove home the whole way on low beams. My high beams will not work at all. The headlights go completely DEAD when I engage them.

Fuses are all fine, wiring to the headlights are all fine. The bulbs themselves are Sylvania Silverstars (I did find a thread on them from a while back. On a side note I've been very pleased with the increase in lighting over my then-still-new OEM bulbs. Girlfriend asked me why my "car is so old but looks so new when the lights are on." They are WHITE and BRIGHT. Visibility is GREAT.)

I take the bulbs out and replace them with the OEM's that I (very luckily) decided to keep as backups. Problem fixed. I inspect the silverstars, and they look absolutely fine inside the glass. The ONLY thing I can see is some black residue on the backside next to the metal tips that connect to the power cable. I can get a pic later.

So let's simplify this and say the bulbs just blew their high beams. But simultaneously? Without blowing a fuse? I'm trying to connect this to my degrading engine wiring harness, but I can't see how. What gives!

Edit: It's clearly not a wattage problem. The bulbs are 55w H4's. Same as OEM.

[jnenad16]

hmm, If the fuses are good, then there was probably a voltage spike when you turned on the high beams, try measuring the voltage at the battery when the low beams are on, then have someone turn on the high beams and you look closely at the DMM, if the voltage spikes over 14.6V, the voltage regulator at the alternator might be bad. I am not sure if the OVP relay could play a part in this as well.

nenad

[Sulaco]

I replaced the OVP a couple years ago. I doubt it's going bad again (I hope).

It's the strangest thing. Now my instrument panel lights are acting funny. When the engine RPM's are at their lowest (in gear, at stop) the lights are full bright (like I prefer them). The minute I get the RPM's above 600 the lights dim a bit. All interior lights dim a bit. So do the headlights. Just bearly noticable.

Could the alternator be bad? It appears that power is being pulled from everything to power the engine as RPM's climb. But how could a weakening alternator cause a power spike that burned out my high beams simultaneously?

By the way, my alternator is original. About 11.5 years old now.

...CANNOT be failing engine wiring harness wasting power/pulling too much?

Edit: This seems kind of irrelevant, but is coinciding with these symptoms. Lately the car's been behaving very badly. She's running real hot (although the weather is pretty how now...95F). When stopped in gear she misfires alot and then sputters a bit when I try to take off again. Whenever I accelerate at full throttle I can feel the power drop a bit at about 3k RPM's in each gear. Power feels fine at first, but it seems like there's suddenly a 20% drop in horsepower at the same RPM in each gear. She even kicked herself into limp mode once 4 days ago. But there's no CEL.

Edit Edit: I don't have a voltmeter to run your test nenad :(

[jnenad16]

yup, sounds like the alternator voltage regulator is going out.
get a cheap voltmeter at walmart for like 10-15 bucks.

nenad

[stox]

I second jnenad16 on this. On modern cars, bad alternators cause all sorts of mysterious problems.

[Sulaco]

So if the voltage regulator is going bad, does that mean I have to replace the entire alternator? PLEASE say no!

The water pump job I did a couple years ago was bad enough! 6 freaking hours!

My father tells me there's a shop nearby that rebuilds radiators for $40. He says mine is no exception. True?

[jnenad16]

to replace the voltage regulator, just removet the black plastic cover at the back of alternator and the regulator is right these secured with two phillips screws.
as for the radiator, I would highly recommend against having it recored just to save some money. recored radiators dont last long, most of them have smaller passages than stock, thus putting alot of strain on the waterpump and the entire cooling system.

nenad

[Sulaco]

Crikey. I don't know why I said radiator there. I meant alternator. There's a shop nearby that rebuilds ALTERNATORS. God, I really can't speak sometimes.

nenad, you are my HERO.

[jnenad16]

you can do it yourself for less than $40. you can buy the voltage regulator for about $25, and about 10min of your time. but when ordering the regulator, make sure you are getting the right one for your alternator, check if you have a bosch or valeo, as they are different in internal design.

nenad

[Sulaco]

Update and bump.

The performance of the car is deteriorating rapidly. Everytime I first crank the car in the day, it revs like it's going insane. RPM's drop to where it nearly dies, then bounce up to about 1.5k then back down. I tried the MAS-test (disconnected it while the car was doing the funny idle) and all it didn't help. The only difference was after a few of the idle bounces the car died.

Sure enough, as the RPM's would climb on their own at idle, the dash lights would go a little DIMMER (as opposed to brighter--the norm). Since it only does this when the car is cold and has yet to warm up, I'm thinking it's not the fuel pressure reader. I'm starting to think it's some kind of serious vacuum problem now.

And under acceleration the car hesitates for a second at 3,500 RPM and then continues on. The overall performance of the car seems a bit less as well. When approaching a redlight or stop sign, I have to hold the brake and gas both to keep RPM's up a little or the car almost certainly will sputter then kick into limp mode upon leaving the intersection.

There is no CEL, and the bulb is not blown.

I've finally got some cash to fix, and I want to get this fixed asap.

PLEASE help!

Edit: Cruise control cuts out as well now. It was working on a 3 hour drive yesterday. I drove about 30 miles with the A/C on full and cruise control engaged. I press AUTO to give the A/C a rest, and the cruise control instantly quit and never worked again yesterday.

Throttle actuator?

[Sulaco]

Bump!