We tested the dimmer and relay when they were off. They were working fine. Should we also test them while connected? Not sure how to do that.





Also, can a moderator change the title of this topic to: "No low beams 96' Honda accord" High beams always on isn't an accurate description of the problem.

 

First-changed the title for you

So if this is more of a No Low Beam question- At first low works, then you switch to high, after that it will not go back to low????

Sorry I'm getting myself confused here....

 

short to power causes a component to stay on all the time, for instance your blinker is on and bright, when you turn on your blinker it does not change, just stays bright, that is a short to power.

a short to ground will cause a component to not work at all.

 

Sometimes when I start on the car, I can press in the switch and switch it to low beams. This works once in a blue moon, I don't think it has anything to do with the car starting, just every now I can press the switch and it actually switches to low beams for a little bit and then revert to high beams... Does that correlate with a 'short to power' issue?

 

Press or pull?

 

well, technically, I pull the switch in to me. Although I think everyone knows what I mean

 

The devil is in the details....IMO. That is why I wanted to be sure.....Have you tested the switch to be sure the outputs are correct?

 

I think this problem is beyond me. I'm going to contact all the automotive/vo tech schools in the area and see if I can't work out so arrangement where some auto students get a good problem to fix and I get my low beams working when I need them.

I'll report here back what I find if It's solved. It's weird there's like 5 or 6 posts all over the internet with "accords no low beams" but no ones ever reported back how they fixed it...

 

This problem might be the combination switch.

The two headlights do not share a common ground, they have separate grounds. Additionally, your turn signals works for the most part, so it may not be the grounds. The headlight relay and dimmer were changed and tested good. This would lead me to suspect the combination switch. The service manual (which can be downloaded in the sticky posted above in this forum) has procedures to test the combination switch for continuity.

 

I replaced the turn-signal switch already. FYI: Forgot to mention, after I bought the car I noticed it was missing the fender skirts for both drivers and passenger side. I don't know, the switch my honda guy replaced it with was used and the same age as mine. Maybe it was bad too?

Update: We took out the dimmer relay and now the car has low beams on the high beams setting. Huzzah, this is a good enough solution for me. If I want high beams I just put the relay back in...problem solved.

I'm thinking maybe somebody funked with the wiring. A guy on the Car talk forum suggested it was an open ground. As we couldn't find the low beam ground(supposedly around the bumper by the driver's side light) we gave up on switching it form inside the car. However, if someone can figure it out I'd still be interested to know as would a lot of other people. No low beams seems to be a pretty prevalent car problem.