HELP! My headlights are out, but the brights work fine!

[Marco922]

(This is concerning an '03 Vibe)When I turn my light knob two clicks to have my headlights come on, all lights (rear lights and front runner lights) come on except my headlights. The daytime dim lights also do not work.Here is the odd part, the brights work fine! I am at a loss as to what the problem may be. I have checked the fuses, and they appear to be fine.Is there a fuse that is responsible for the regular head lights, but not the brights?Any other possible solutions?

[ZubenElGenubi]

Would be a wierd coincidence, but your regular filaments in both of your headlights may be out.I say that because usually you'd see one or the other go out first. Could be they've been out for some time. The replacement bulb number is 9003.

[joatmon]

that happened to me last fall. hadn't driven at night for a while, with the days getting shorter, one day on the way home from work found I only had highbeams. I pissed off a lot of people driving with the hihgbeams on, but it was that or camp out in the car on the highway until sunrise. The headlights have two filaments in them, on both of mine the low beam filament was burned out. I thnk DRLs are low beam at a reduced voltage.now, if you had Silverstars in there, you would have already had to replace them several times.

[Lancer]

Change your light bulbs. Like Zuben said, there's 2 filaments. One low beam, one high beam.

[Digger]

there are also two different fuses for the High and low beams I would check the fuse box also

[ZubenElGenubi]

Quote, originally posted by Digger »there are also two different fuses for the High and low beams I would check the fuse box alsoJust checked the owner's manual; don't see separate fuses for High and Low.

[joatmon]

yeah, the wirinig diagram only shows one fuse for the headlighlights, serves both high and low beam

[P-Fernandez]

The same thing happened to my brother on his 98 Accord, lows dont work, but highs do. In his cas , he changed the bulbs, but stil not working, he checked several other things , but we finally found out it was the wiring...... ihope this helps,,,-------pf

[Digger]

I was speeking of one in the dash and one also under the hood. then again I could be confused with my merc. I had before. It had seperate fuses for left and right head lights.Do you have foglights If so, Are they also out?

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »that happened to me last fall. Today I noticed that once again, both of my lowbeams are burned out. The original factory headlights were GE, they lasted almost three years. The replacements were Sylvania, they lasted about 7 months. Unfortunately none of the stores around me sell GE bulbs, only Sylvania, so that's what I had to buy. I should have bought a set to replace the failed ones, and a spare set for when those fail. Like last time, I am not sure how long it's been since they both burned out so I guess I need to make it a routine thing to check my lights.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »Like last time, I am not sure how long it's been since they both burned out so I guess I need to make it a routine thing to check my lights.That was 5/8/2006, and it looks like those bulbs lasted about 9 months, because today, again driving home from work, starts to get dark, and I notice I had no headlights. I have been driving at night, so I think they both went today. I wonder if some bump in the road took them out. So, like last time, both high beams worked, but this time I pulled over, and used duct tape to cover the top half of my headlights so I wouldn't be so annoying to other drivers. Took me about 30 minutes to get to the auto parts store, (why do they only sell the same Sylvania bulbs that I had to buy the last time) and a quick swap in the parking lot, yank off the duct tape, and back on the road legally.And you don't have to pull the battery to swap the drivers side headlight bulb, but it can be rough on the hands and I was kinda pissed at them burning out again, and didn't buy a spare set this time either.Edit 10/29on 10/25, I noticed the drivers side low beam was out again, already. At least this time I noiticed before both went out, but that one lasted almost 9 months again, about 22K miles. THis time I replaced them both with a set of bulbs from a NAPA store, appear to have been manufactured byt "Federal Mogul" Will be interesting to see how long they last compared to the 9 month sylvanias

[Atomicpunk]

You gotta love built in obsolesce. They can make light bulbs that are made at the same time burn out within a week to month of each other. Try to find bulbs not made in China or Mexico but made in Europe, they seem to last alot longer.

[Tubaryan12]

I know we've all heard this before, but make sure you don't touch the glass on the bulb at all. I don't care how clean and dry your hands may be. When I had an Elantra and my 1st set up bulbs blew, I installed my next couple of sets and none of them lasted more than 9 months. Then I complained to the dealership and they gave me the "no matter how clean and dry" line. They installed the next set and those didn't burn out. Btw....they replaced them for free (60k mile bumper to bumper warranties are great).

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by Tubaryan12 » make sure you don't touch the glass on the bulb at all. I do appreciate the reminder, and am very careful to never touch the glass. I think this time it may have been caused by a hard bump in the road. One of the roads travel every day is having a subdivision put in, THe day I noticed my bulbs were out, it seems like the construction required running a utility across the road, and they did a poor job of filling in the trench, I did not esee it coming, and hit it pretty hard, about a half hour later, it was getting dark and I noticed my low beams were out.Another factor is that although it was only about 9 months, it was also about 23,000 miles since the last replacement.And for what it's worth, my last set of failed Sylvania bulbs had "Germany" stamped on them

[Whelan]

Vibes use a 9003 bulb??? I thought it would be the same 9006 that Toyota uses in both their fog and headlamps, makes changing bulbs a lot easier.

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »Vibes use a 9003 bulb??? I thought it would be the same 9006 that Toyota uses in both their fog and headlamps, makes changing bulbs a lot easier.Fogs are 9006, Headlights are 9003 - on both cars.And yep - my silverstars died almost 12 months after installation - within two weeks of each other. I'd say 90% of my 40k miles were with them on...

[Whelan]

That must be for the 03-04. Cause my 05 XR AWD is all 9006, even says so in the manual.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »That must be for the 03-04. Cause my 05 XR AWD is all 9006, even says so in the manual.I have a PDF of the 05 owners manual, on page 5-55 it says

Attached files

[Whelan]

stranger even still, My Civic took a 9003 and if I tried to put that in my Matrix, it would def. not fit.albeit not this color, but that is the bulb for both the Matrix low beam and fog. The Matrix has a separate high beam so we use a 9005 high beam. The 9003 bulbs have highs built in.

[joatmon]

somehow I missed that fact that you had a Matrix. i don't have a copy of the Matrix owners manual, Toyota doesn't seem to offer them in that format. For what it's worth, you can download a copy of Vibe onwers manuals from http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=1010

[Whelan]

Once I saw the pic you threw up I figured we were confusing each other, lol. Yes I own a Trix. But it does make sense now since Vibes only have park/turns and one headlamp i.e. the 9003 hi/low. And my trix has the 3 piece.

[Seattle_03GT]

OK, this just happened to me last night on my '03 GT. Brights work, foglights, parks, etc. Main headlights are currently out. One headlight was replaced in October 2019, 3,000 miles ago so is basically new (both bulbs are basic Phillips 9003's.) I thought I noticed a slight grinding noise in the engine last night also.

Was there a unique solution to this original post or was it just a coincidence of double burned bulbs?

[zbyers]

OK, this just happened to me last night on my '03 GT. Brights work, foglights, parks, etc. Main headlights are currently out. One headlight was replaced in October 2019, 3,000 miles ago so is basically new (both bulbs are basic Phillips 9003's.) I thought I noticed a slight grinding noise in the engine last night also.

Was there a unique solution to this original post or was it just a coincidence of double burned bulbs?

Most cases I've seen were just coinky dinks of BOTH low beams being burnt out.

I'd check the fuse/relay for the low beams, but would suspect both bulbs to be out.