Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Ok I know this is the Nissan Patrol thread but I thought it might be a shot. My GF pulsars headlights are too dull.

Her pulsar is a 2003 model hatch back. the driving lights are on the inside with the highbeam on the outside with parker lights below it. Now the problem is there is not enough light when the driving lights are on. There is enough light to light up about 2 white lane lines in front of the car and when ever anybody gets in the car they ask "why dont you turn the head lights on"

I have had the pulsar looked at by Nissan 3 times and they said they were fine. On the 4th time I took it back and had them look over it with me. A guy came out and agreed that something was wrong it might be the voltage but he could not check it as it would have to be booked in for a service. I have tested the voltage tonight and all seems alright. Sorry I forgot to mention I have replaced all globes

I suppose my question is has anybody here ran into the same problem and if so how did you go about fixing it?

sound like the normal driving light are looseing power?????? might test good but is there anything elese taking up juice????
whats the battry like??? have you put in other battrys to check that?
relays????


like on my toyota camry i can have my radio on but soon as you put lights or use the power windows and so fourth on power to radio dieds down a fair bit


not too sure what else to think of really

only problems iv had is one of my head light on the nissan went glob was good but no one could work it out not even the racv guys in the end they end up wiring the left head light to the right side so both worked

how are the reflectors??

only problems iv had is one of my head light on the nissan went glob was good but no one could work it out not even the racv guys in the end they end up wiring the left head light to the right side so both worked

The only problem with this is the outside lamp is the high beam. The globe for the inside and outside lamp are both the same. It is just the reflectors that are different. The high beam are excellent but it is getting to the point of almost dangerous when driving with normal driving lights.

I might try another battery there was a loss of about 1 volt when testing the globes and the battery.

There are no relays that seem to work the lights. Dont ask why My dad and I both looked could not find a relay for it. There is no click of the relay when you turn the lights on. which leads us both the think there is no relay.

The reflectors have a tint over them I have no idea if it is suppose to be that way or not however it has been like that since new.[/quote]

When you say the voltage is fine ... what was the voltage at the globes .. It is amazing what the loss of a less than a volt can do to the output of a light..

The voltage at the globe is about 10.8 My dad and I tested it last night. The battery is sitting on 12.38 so there is about 1 - 1.5 difference in volts.

Would that be the cause. Dad did not think that was as it could be loss over the wire.

Toli wrote:The voltage at the globe is about 10.8 My dad and I tested it last night. The battery is sitting on 12.38 so there is about 1 - 1.5 difference in volts.

Would that be the cause. Dad did not think that was as it could be loss over the wire.

That is a bit too much loss of voltage imo. It is a 13% loss of voltage which translates to about a 25% loss of power, which would pretty much explain the dimness of the lights.

Here is what I would do. Get a piece of good, thick wire, something thicker than the wire currently running the light, maybe 75cm long. Strip both ends of it and keep it handy.

Now turn the lights on. They are too dim, and they only have 10.8 volts across them. Get your piece of good thick wire, and run it directly from the battery +ve terminal to the matching terminal on the light. Effectively, you're compensating for any inadequacy in the existing wiring on this terminal. Does it improve either the voltage or the brightness?

Next, do the same thing from the -ve terminal of the battery to the -ve tag on the headlamp. Does this help?

If you find that one placement of the wire makes a big difference, then there is a problem with that part of the stock wiring/connections.

With that much voltage loss it really sounds like a damaged or defective bit of wiring somewhere. If this process doesn't help... hmm.

Jason

BTW I would suggest that a mod move this to the auto-elec section as there are a few knowledgeable people more likely to check it there.

Thanks for that guys I will have a look more into the voltage drop

Yep . sounds like you need to run a relay. My jag had the same problem. A few relays and its all good.
If you test with volt meter make sure car is running above idle as thats what your alt is doing whilst your driving. You could be loosing up to 3 volts .
Cheers

pongo wrote:Yep . sounds like you need to run a relay. My jag had the same problem. A few relays and its all good.
If you test with volt meter make sure car is running above idle as thats what your alt is doing whilst your driving. You could be loosing up to 3 volts .
Cheers

I had to do that for my jag too, but they are notorious for substandard, prince-of-darkness wiring. I would be a bit surprised if this amount of voltage drop was normal for a newish japanese car - they usually have pretty good lights.