Issue with hi beams and general electrical woes

[wilco22]

Hello,
This is my first post. I am trying to solve an electrical issue with the headlights on my 2008 sedan. My lights seemed to flash the other night when I put on my brights. Since that event, neither bulb's brights work. I have running lights enabled and when I turn the brights on, the low beams go off and there is a fainter light that may be equal the running lights brightness - I hadn't really made a note of them before. Here is the combo of condidtions/facts:

• My normal low beam setting works.
• I can not get the fog lights to work when at the low beam setting.
• When set to the parking (middle option on light stick) lights are on, I can turn on the fog lights (so they aren't burned out).
• My brights do not work at all but when I attempt them, I get a dim illumination - much less than standard low beam.

I changed all the fuses that might be even remotely invovled, although the existing ones didn't appear to be bad but some and kind of browned posts.


I'm thinking it might be a relay as some lights work under some conditions but not othere. Any ideas?
Thanks

[EAD15]

Have you tried inspecting/replacing the bulbs? The high beams use a separate filament from the low beam so you may have just been "lucky" enough to have both high beam filaments burn up at the same time.

Also, the fog lights are a completely separate bulb, as far as I know. So they are probably irrelevant to the troubleshooting process.]

[wilco22]

I haven't replaced the bulbs but that scenario is a real possibility. I mentioned the fog lamps because they are not working normally and they are related to the hi beams because in normal use, they turn off automatically when the hi beams are turned on. There must be a circuit in common.

[jimzdat]

I would definitely check the bulbs; since the high beams are a higher wattage, the filament also burns hotter, and is more fragile.

The fog light function you describe is perfectly normal; fogs are only on with low beams, off with high beams. The inverse is true of driving lights.

The only commonality between the circuits is in a relay - when the high beams are on, it will trigger the coil on a relay; turning off the fog lamps.

[xintersecty]

I would say bulbs too. The other thing you can do is make sure you are getting power to the right wires when you select different functions. You need to use a multimeter.