Hey guys,

New member here! I got my TL last year (2003 model). I'm loving the car so far, and it's been treating me fairly well.

That being said, I live in Southern California and it rained here a lot a few weeks ago. After the rain, I noticed a few things:

-The driver's headlight no longer works (both low and high beam don't work)
-The fog lights now flicker (and sometimes don't come on), and the blue indicator for the high beams flickers on and off on my dashboard, even though my high beams aren't on.

Now I've done my research and I know that the ballast on the headlights does get some moisture (also checked that the headlight fuse was indeed blown for the driver's side - replacing it didn't seem to do anything). However, what could be the cause of the flicker in my fog lights/dashboard indicators?

Thanks guys!

 

Sounds more like moisture in a fuse box or in part of the wire harness to me, disconnect the plugs that power the low beams and check for moisture too, will be under the hood at the bottom of the back of the headlight assembly, (facing front of car) driver side plug is to the bottom right, left is to bottom left.... Check for moisture, the fogs only come on when you have the low beams on, the relay that controls this could be a problem too... However i seem to remember mine doing some crazy stuff like this when my driver side ballast decided to check out one time.... I'd take a multimeter and start checking! There's alot of things it could be... Unless someone with more experience on the electrical systems in our cars wants to chime in.

 

welcome to azine and the failed low beam ballast after moisture problem- a frequent first post!!
Bet you have condensation inside the housing lens- right?

Ck out HID Kits | Conversion Kits | Xenon Headlights | HIDeXtra as one good source for a new `kit` of parts for both sides
get rid of the 15 year old junk and install some modern waterproof micro sized stuff
Comes with new bulbs ballast and invertor/ignitor,,no need for extra relay or anything since we are simply swapping in new parts for same type- HID- as old
Suggest standard 35 watt ballast (same as stock) and 5000k color bulbs (a little better color than stock)

If you want to replace turn signal bulbs and high beams this is the time- its all right at hand when you pop the housings off the car- easy to do and we have several threads on diy

beyond that - relay may be bad and something is up with the blown fuse, could be the water issue was really severe?
Other known problems are the solder under the relay box
Ck our diy list for more help

don't worry- between us we have had most problems and know the fixes!
this one seems bad but its not

 

other thing to ck is condition of the car battery and its cables
plus the small braided Ground wires from frame to engine and trans parts
Rust on them needs to be cleaned off, all connection tight after cleaning etc

Any growth of crud on the battery cables and terminals?

 

^Agreed

 

I did a spot check yesterday on the battery and it all looks good. I did notice, however, that when I turn the fog lights on, all my lights now flicker and I can hear a clicking sound from near my A/C. I don't know much about this car, so I'm not sure what's going on. Also, I did notice that the fog lights on the driver's side don't work. So basically, the driver's side low,high,fog lights don't work.

I'll check for moisture when I get a chance this weekend.

Also, not sure if this is related, but my sub went out. This might just need some re-wiring since I did the DIY to have the sub work with an aftermarket head unit.

 

ck the ground for your sub--that has caused more problems....ck where old sub ground was- its part of some other grounds = as far as I can tell~

unless you had the battery put thru a test with load of lights and heater on, and with starter use- you can't tell anything from a visual - besides massive growth of crud on terminals that's caused by acid in battery boiling out- or otherwise escaping thru the vents- and attracted to the terminals where it gets in and eat the cables from inside

clicking noise by ac? under the hood? was it the ac compressor engaging and disengaging? try with ac off, may be the ac belt tensioner too!

at idle there is not enough power to run everything so the lights are flickering, find out why its so low!
get to a parts store before anything else!! FREE test of system takes a few minutes to know whats happening

 

I just did a check again - seems like I blew the driver's headlight fuse again. Can a faulty ballast cause that?

Either way, I was thinking of buying a new kit from HIDextra. Do I need any other accessories? I read some DIY here on the forums and it seems to involve some kind of splicing. Is there a way around that?

 

it so easy to install the needed wire connectors I don't know why we even mention it~
Can you operate wire cutter/ kitchen scissors? and pliers to clamp the new connector on to wire? You're in!

yes get the kit and fix the problem
buy box of connectors at parts store for 2$

suggest their standard 35 watt ballast with 5000K color for the bulbs
Order by pull down menu for your year blah-blah
or call- mention azine, ask for best coupon avail
Look on their webpage for coupon code right there!! or search online- 10-15%

 

do NOT need a relay as we are not converting to HID, we are just swapping out old parts for new- improved parts

 

Yeah, turns out it was the ballast. I got the HID kit from HIDextra and now my headlights are back in business. It was easy too.

My driver's side fog light is out, however. I tried plugging in a new bulb but still nothing. What could it be?

 

ck its fuse and relay! Try known good bulb but likely that getting power is the issue

reminder: it takes about 50 hours of use for the new headlight bulbs to fully `burn in`
then they will be full brightness and color stable