Headlight issue

[adf5565]

My new LED headlights came in today so I figured I’d install them to see how they are. I went with the Phillips H6054s. Well I got them hooked up and all was well for a minute until I switched back and forth from high to low beams a couple times. That’s when the drivers side went out. I uninstalled it, hooked that light to the passenger side, and it worked. So switched back to the drivers and it still worked. So fully installed it again and then nothing. And now that light doesn’t work on either side.

I checked the voltages at the plugs on both left and right headlights and get 12v, and then plugged in the original non LED headlight into the drivers side and that still worked (on low as the high beam was previously blown).

Im assuming I got a bad headlight and should be able to exchange it, however is there something else I should be checking before I plug a new one in to make sure the truck wasn’t the cause of the issue? All other lights on the truck currently work and other than a slightly melted fuse and some old blown bulbs when I originally purchased the truck I haven’t come across any light issues. But from what I read the fuse issue is common due to the draw of the lighting circuit (another reason why I went with LEDs)?

 

[Barrman]

Check the ground bolt on both headlight plugs. I have had weird light issues because of those bolts in the past.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Yeah, a bad ground can do crazy things. Can't hurt to clean up both of the headlight grounds down to shiny, bare metal. Use a new screw, or at least make sure you clean up all the rust, and slap some dielectric grease on things to prevent corrosion.

 

[adf5565]

Makes sense, I’ll clean up that ground to make sure it’s good. I definitely don’t want to blow another $160 light

 

[WWRD99]

Makes sense, I’ll clean up that ground to make sure it’s good. I definitely don’t want to blow another $160 light

I think there's a ground on each side...but if the old light works then you got a bad light....I put a set in mine a while back and they work great...the blue high beam indicator works with them too...I got mine on the ol amazon but they fit and are very bright...you'll like them in there over the stock lights.

 

[Rutjes]

Wow, nice lights! And Philips too. Any pictures of them installed?

 

[adf5565]

Wow, nice lights! And Philips too. Any pictures of them installed?

Thanks! Currently no good pics since only one light is in and working but the replacement should be here Monday or Tuesday so I’ll post some then. But they do already seem alot brighter that the originals

 

[ssdvc]

Was the defective light covered by warrantee?

 

[adf5565]

Was the defective light covered by warrantee?

I got them from Amazon so thankfully I was able to return it and get a new one sent pretty easily.

 

[adf5565]

My replacement light showed up today. In the mean time I got the grounds and plugs cleaned up. I’m sure it could’ve been worse but they looked a little crusty. But I had an interesting discovery, once I cleaned up everything my original non led light worked on both high and low beam, while before it just worked on low. So I’m guessing I had some corrosion somewhere that may have caused the last LED to blow.

I took a few pics on high and low beam to compare the LED to the original bulb. Definitely is much brighter. I also got the replacement bulb installed (so both lights swapped to LED) and so far so good! Only one relatively minor issue now is that the high beam indicator lights on the dash no longer work. I’m in the middle of taking the dash apart anyways so I’ll check those bulbs, they worked last week with the LEDs in so not sure what happened there.

 

[WWRD99]

My replacement light showed up today. In the mean time I got the grounds and plugs cleaned up. I’m sure it could’ve been worse but they looked a little crusty. But I had an interesting discovery, once I cleaned up everything my original non led light worked on both high and low beam, while before it just worked on low. So I’m guessing I had some corrosion somewhere that may have caused the last LED to blow.

I took a few pics on high and low beam to compare the LED to the original bulb. Definitely is much brighter. I also got the replacement bulb installed (so both lights swapped to LED) and so far so good! Only one relatively minor issue now is that the high beam indicator lights on the dash no longer work. I’m in the middle of taking the dash apart anyways so I’ll check those bulbs, they worked last week with the LEDs in so not sure what happened there.

Looks great!! I'm not sure but some old cars used the high beam to ground the dash bulbs to light up...some LEDs let it through while some don't...I'm not sure if that's how these work, can't remember...on other points I put LEDs in my truck and everything works...who knows...shouldn't be that tough to pop a scheme on and figure out...mine aim pretty low, right in front of the truck but the high beams go very far...on low they don't blind people like so many others with LEDs. These trucks don't have enough grounds in my op...they have no redundancy at all.

 

[adf5565]

Looks great!! I'm not sure but some old cars used the high beam to ground the dash bulbs to light up...some LEDs let it through while some don't...I'm not sure if that's how these work, can't remember...on other points I put LEDs in my truck and everything works...who knows...shouldn't be that tough to pop a scheme on and figure out...mine aim pretty low, right in front of the truck but the high beams go very far...on low they don't blind people like so many others with LEDs. These trucks don't have enough grounds in my op...they have no redundancy at all.

Hmm, could be, I’ll have to check the bulb sockets and see what’s going on. I already planned on changing out a lot of the dash lights since they’re either out or extremely dim

 

[WWRD99]

Hmm, could be, I’ll have to check the bulb sockets and see what’s going on. I already planned on changing out a lot of the dash lights since they’re either out or extremely dim

Wait...dash lights are bright?? I'm sure they were designed to be as dull as possible to keep you guessing at how slow you're really going at night or what gear you're in or out of fuel...all of mine quit working the other day out of no where...typical. On a real note the switch on the column might need adjusted or the bar going to it bent some...it should click pretty loud when you pull back on the switch lever.

 

[79Vette]

Wait...dash lights are bright?? I'm sure they were designed to be as dull as possible to keep you guessing at how slow you're really going at night or what gear you're in or out of fuel...all of mine quit working the other day out of no where...typical. On a real note the switch on the column might need adjusted or the bar going to it bent some...it should click pretty loud when you pull back on the switch lever.

You can get plug-in LED replacements for 194 style bulbs pretty cheap on Amazon and other places. I changed my cluster bulbs to LEDs and the improvement is massive. In the photos below I changed the 194 style incandescent bulbs in the factory gauge cluster out to LEDs, and did not make any changes to the illumination in my aftermarket gauges. The LEDs are bright enough they show all the dust and scratches in my crappy old cluster, so I am going to have to tear it down for a cleaning and lens replacement sometime soon, but at least now I can read the gauges when I am driving...

 

[79Vette]

Looks great!! I'm not sure but some old cars used the high beam to ground the dash bulbs to light up...some LEDs let it through while some don't...I'm not sure if that's how these work, can't remember...on other points I put LEDs in my truck and everything works...who knows...shouldn't be that tough to pop a scheme on and figure out...mine aim pretty low, right in front of the truck but the high beams go very far...on low they don't blind people like so many others with LEDs. These trucks don't have enough grounds in my op...they have no redundancy at all.

Check out F-13 and F-14 in the 289-20 TM. Power is supplied to the dash lamps from .5 GRA-8B (highlighted orange), and they ground through 8 BLK 150B (highlighted yellow). You can swap LEDs or anything else in here and they will work fine. The 12v source is in parallel with the heater panel and voltmeter lamp, and the ground is shared with the rest of the dash lamps. If either of your turn signal indicators or high beam indicator work, the dash ground is working. If your heater or voltmeter light work, then you have power to the .5 GRA 8 splice. If those things dont work, then you can troubleshoot from the diagram.

The only bulbs I am aware of with weird grounds on GM square bodies are the side marker lights. If you change the park lamps (yellow ones in the front grill) to LEDs, your side markers might not work anymore. See the last post in this thread for an at length discussion of that circuit and adding a resistor to fix it.
At least on my truck, everything else was able to swap to LEDs with no issue.

Driver side marker light not working

I've been looking at F-13 and F-14 in the -20 TM for about 2 hours, but I dont understand what the diagram is saying. All passenger side marker and turn signals on the truck work. The driver side parking light and rear turn signal works, and the side marker light flashes when the turn signal is...

www.steelsoldiers.com

Only one relatively minor issue now is that the high beam indicator lights on the dash no longer work. I’m in the middle of taking the dash apart anyways so I’ll check those bulbs, they worked last week with the LEDs in so not sure what happened there.

F-13 and F-14 in the 289-20 TM also covers this. I attached images, but let me know if you cant find the issue. The high beam indicator is powered by .5 LT GRN-11B (highlighted yellow, I ran out of colors so dont confuse with the ground). if you pull the cluster, check for power on that pin on the pigtail (see diagram). I would guess its a bad connection from the pigtail to the cluster flexible circuit board or from the flex circuit to the bulb. If you dont have power at the connector, follow the highlighted circuit branch back until you get power, and that will tell you where the damage is. But I bet its just a loose connection in the cluster somewhere.

 

[adf5565]

Check out F-13 and F-14 in the 289-20 TM. Power is supplied to the dash lamps from .5 GRA-8B (highlighted orange), and they ground through 8 BLK 150B (highlighted yellow). You can swap LEDs or anything else in here and they will work fine. The 12v source is in parallel with the heater panel and voltmeter lamp, and the ground is shared with the rest of the dash lamps. If either of your turn signal indicators or high beam indicator work, the dash ground is working. If your heater or voltmeter light work, then you have power to the .5 GRA 8 splice. If those things dont work, then you can troubleshoot from the diagram.

The only bulbs I am aware of with weird grounds on GM square bodies are the side marker lights. If you change the park lamps (yellow ones in the front grill) to LEDs, your side markers might not work anymore. See the last post in this thread for an at length discussion of that circuit and adding a resistor to fix it.
At least on my truck, everything else was able to swap to LEDs with no issue.

Driver side marker light not working

I've been looking at F-13 and F-14 in the -20 TM for about 2 hours, but I dont understand what the diagram is saying. All passenger side marker and turn signals on the truck work. The driver side parking light and rear turn signal works, and the side marker light flashes when the turn signal is...

www.steelsoldiers.com

F-13 and F-14 in the 289-20 TM also covers this. I attached images, but let me know if you cant find the issue. The high beam indicator is powered by .5 LT GRN-11B (highlighted yellow, I ran out of colors so dont confuse with the ground). if you pull the cluster, check for power on that pin on the pigtail (see diagram). I would guess its a bad connection from the pigtail to the cluster flexible circuit board or from the flex circuit to the bulb. If you dont have power at the connector, follow the highlighted circuit branch back until you get power, and that will tell you where the damage is. But I bet its just a loose connection in the cluster somewhere.

That’s great info, thanks! Definitely will help save me some time with the troubleshooting. I’ll take a look tonight and see what’s going on.

 

[adf5565]

I pulled out the cluster tonight and swapped some bulbs with LEDs. I need to order a few more bulbs as I didn’t buy enough but the high beam indicator works good now!

 

[WWRD99]

I pulled out the cluster tonight and swapped some bulbs with LEDs. I need to order a few more bulbs as I didn’t buy enough but the high beam indicator works good now!

Nice! Do they dim or do they stay the same brightness then go out with the dimmer switch? Mine turned out to be the fuse connection...I have to clean all the internal contacts more...a new fuse helps too.

 

[adf5565]

Nice! Do they dim or do they stay the same brightness then go out with the dimmer switch? Mine turned out to be the fuse connection...I have to clean all the internal contacts more...a new fuse helps too.

They surprisingly seem to dim with the switch. I’m not sure if the original headlight indicator bulb was the issue or just the fact I had the dimmer on very low and didn’t realize it

 

[WWRD99]

They surprisingly seem to dim with the switch. I’m not sure if the original headlight indicator bulb was the issue or just the fact I had the dimmer on very low and didn’t realize it

That's good...some LEDs don't dim but go out...I think the manufacturers have found that bulbs need to be used at lower voltage to dim and they've made them work that way now...they used to be very sensitive to low volts.

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