Hi gang, super duper newbie here, so be gentle. I've been struggling mightily with a headlight assembly replacement job for an '05 TSX. The driver side assembly housing was cracked and water was in the light. The low beam died, but the turn and high-beam are fine.

Being a newbie, i dove right in to taking bulbs and parts from the old assembly and put them in the new. When I got to the ballast i found it was full of sand and water, so I replaced that. The light didn't come back on though. I replaced the bulb next but still no luck.

Then it occurred to me to try moving the passenger light (which isn't water damaged) over. When I plug the passenger light into the wire on the driver side (low beam wire only), i hear some clicking sounds, but the light doesn't come on. Move back to the passenger side and it does, but there's an audible squealing sound that starts loud and fades to very soft in a few seconds.

If I plug the new driver-side assembly (complete with new ballast and new bulb) into the passenger side, it works fine, but also squeals. So it seems there's an issue up stream from the light that's preventing juice from getting to the light, regardless of which assembly is there.

So there are two questions
1) Is that noise normal (and I just never notice it 'cause im usually sitting in the car, the light isn't dangling off the chasis, and the hood is shut) or have I done something to screw up the previously fine passenger side light too?

2) What can I do to diagnose the apparent driver side wiring issue?

Thanks so much for your time.

 

The noise you describe sounds normal.

It sounds like the supply voltage or current to the drivers side ballast is insufficient. If you plug the passenger side ballast and bulb into the drivers side harness, does it work? You can check the voltage on the harness with a DC voltmeter.

 

Thanks for the reply. No, the passenger side light does not work when plugged into the driver side wire. There appears to be no current on the wire. I used a 12V test light and the other three wires on the driver side all lit up fine, as did all four on the passenger side. It appears that both left and right side low beams share a fuse, so that couldn't be the issue could it?

Anyway, I think I'm in deep trouble. SHould I just bite the bullet and take her into the dealership?

Thanks again.

 

I personally would not take it into the dealership, just because they charge so much. My best guess is the ground wire for the drivers side lowbeam has been knocked loose. The ground wire should connect near the drivers side of the bumper to the frame. You should find a bolt with about 5 connections running to it that ground various circuits, one of them being the lowbeam.

It should look like the image below where it points to G201, but on the other side.


The connector will look similar to this, minus the red wire.