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Voltage Issue With Head Lights

M

mccullek

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I have been trying to get the headlights to work properly on my M1097R1. I finally narrowed my problem down to a negative voltage on the driver side high beam. This doesn’t happen on the passenger side and both low beams give a positive voltage and both work properly.

As soon as I hit the high beams, the drivers side with the negative voltage goes out. I can only assume that the wires for the high beam are crossed somewhere, but where could that be? The wiring harness all looks original and untampered with under the hood. It does look like my light switch has been replaced, so could it get reversed there?

If anyone is familiar with the wiring, specifically the headlights and could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I’m just not sure where the negative and positive wires could be crossed if that’s even possible?
 
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papakb

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The headlights are a major PITA because they can be crosswired at a couple of points right there at the headlight buckets. The wires from the headlight itself connect to feedthus inside the bucket that then connect to harness wires on the outside of each bucket. Make sure all the 17, 18, and 91 wires are connected properly. It's really easy to cross them when moving from insiide the buckets to the harness wiring. The buckets are stencilled inside and out but you need to pay attention when connecting the wires from the lights and the harness to them.

This is the most common cause of headlight problems. The harness wiring to the switch and the switch itself rarely cause problems like this. They either work or they don't.
 
M

mccullek

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I checked all of that, and everything is plugged in correctly on both sides. The voltage for the high beam is negative on the drivers side. I get -24.4 volts. Even when I measure the voltage on the engine side of the hood, it is a negative voltage.

On both sides the low beam is positive 24.4 volts and on the passenger side the high beam is positive 24.4 volts. Only the drivers side high beam is negative 24.4 volts.
 
M

mccullek

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TOBASH said:
You know the vendors and FleaBay sell this part.

Just saying..:
Click to expand...
I assume you mean the headlights? I have two new LED headlights. The issue is I am getting a negative voltage on the high beam on drivers side only. I’ve verified all the wiring it correct, I just can’t figure out why the high voltage is giving me a negative 24.4V instead of a positive 24.4V.
 
Mogman

Mogman

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If one of the headlights is working correctly and the other one is not, I would not think it is the light switch or the dimmer switch but an issue out on the front end where the circuits split and or a headlight issue.
 
M

mccullek

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G744 said:
Sounds a lot like an open ground (91) wire somewhere.
Click to expand...
This was my thinking, but not sure where to start looking? The wiring harness looks fine and I see no tears or cuts anywhere I can trace it up front under the hood. I thought maybe it was the dimmer switch, but again, wouldn’t that affect both high beams and not just one side?

Is there any place it could be disconnected and the wires flip flopped during a disconnect? Guess I need to find a wiring diagram.
 
Mogman

Mogman

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mccullek said:
This was my thinking, but not sure where to start looking? The wiring harness looks fine and I see no tears or cuts anywhere I can trace it up front under the hood. I thought maybe it was the dimmer switch, but again, wouldn’t that affect both high beams and not just one side?

Is there any place it could be disconnected and the wires flip flopped during a disconnect? Guess I need to find a wiring diagram.
Click to expand...
Yes a wiring diagram is a must when troubleshooting, one thing is to do what was suggested by the first person answering your post.
Pull the headlight out of the bucket, start on the engine side of the headlight bucket and make sure all the wire numbers match from the harness to the bucket leads to the headlight, there are two sets of connections there, one set on the back of the bucket one set at the headlight.
Take a meter and make sure wire #91 in grounded.
Let me find a schematic.
headlight.JPG
17 is high beam, 18 is low beam and 91 is ground, should be very simple to troubleshoot, but if you don't have a schematic and a meter you are wasting your time.
You could also just have a burned out lamp.
 
Last edited:
M

mccullek

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I was able to figure this out. Two of the wires inside the hood were labeled wrong. I guess someone clamped the wrong numbers on the wires, flip flopping the ground and high beam.

Further hampering the ability to easily figure this out was the fact the my two brand new LED replacement lights are junk. Got them off EBay and neither one worked properly.

One light had a good high beam and only one of the three low beams were good. The other light had no high beam, and although all three low beams were lit, one barely put out any light at all.

Total junk and a total waste of money. But yes, the actual high beam wire and negative were labeled wrong on the engine bay side, so that’s why I was getting a negative voltage on high.
 
C

Coug

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G744 said:
There are those of us that prefer Hella 7" housings and Osram 24V 70/75W H4 lamps in them.

Razor sharp focus, without the diffusion all LED headlights have. In other words, they aren't "rude" to oncoming drivers.
Click to expand...
I definitely like mine.
I have cracked the housing a couple times when I had the lights on and drove much too fast into standing water (1' deep or more with enough speed that it was well over the roof of the cab) but at $40ish per housing it's still cheaper than a quality LED assembly with heated lens (definitely need that as I do drive in snow)
Plus, $20 for a pair of bulbs is cheap enough that they could fail every year and I'd still be ahead for the next couple decades
 
M

mccullek

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I returned the cheap EBay LEDs that I had so much trouble with and replaced them with better quality ones. I still decided to go with LEDs and will paste a link to the ones I got.

I did some research this time and found some on Amazon with good reviews. They are more expensive than the eBay ones, but they had a $20 off special going, so were still under $100 for the set. So far, these work great and man are they bright!

I will report back and update this thread if I have any issues or if one goes out, but I am more than happy with them. They are much heavier and have an aluminum body vs the plastic body the old lights had. They also look better and are not as busy looking as some of the other LED headlights on the market. They look good on the front of my M1097.

 
Mogman

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mccullek said:
I returned the cheap EBay LEDs that I had so much trouble with and replaced them with better quality ones. I still decided to go with LEDs and will paste a link to the ones I got.

I did some research this time and found some on Amazon with good reviews. They are more expensive than the eBay ones, but they had a $20 off special going, so were still under $100 for the set. So far, these work great and man are they bright!

I will report back and update this thread if I have any issues or if one goes out, but I am more than happy with them. They are much heavier and have an aluminum body vs the plastic body the old lights had. They also look better and are not as busy looking as some of the other LED headlights on the market. They look good on the front of my M1097.

Click to expand...
These will operate at 28V ?, I just do not see that mentioned in the sale, might have just missed it though..
 
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