wd21overland Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 OK so since i have owned this pathfinder the drivers side high beam has been inop but i have a pair of Hella driving Lights for Aux so i just turn those one with the low beams so it doesnt bother me but needs to get fixed. To start off the headlight bulbs have been replace. I have Read through all the forums and know the headlight wiring in these arent the best so i ordered a heavy duty headlight wiring harness with relays and also A brand new nissan headlight switch. Well i replaced everything and still no driver side high beam so i checked all the wiring and everything is good at the headlight plug minus no power going to the wire for the high beam. I tested the drivers side high beam wire at the switch and it has 12v but nothing at the headlight socket so i have a break some where between the 2. My question is does anyone know if there is a connector some where between the headlight switch and the headlight socket. If i can find that connector i can track the power and see where my break is but once it leaves the headlight switch the wire is gone is a mess of wiring looms so tuff to track down. My quesss is a bulkhead connector somewhere but cant seem to find it. I guess worse comes i can just cut the wiring once it leave the healight switch and hook it directly to the after market harness but really would like to keep the wiring neat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Have you checked the fuses under the hood? I recall seeing headlight fuses there. Edited February 6, 2012 by adamzan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowTied Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 If it was a fuse wouldnt it affect both high beams? I have the same issue still on my '02 though it is pass side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoore4512 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Check the connector to the bulb... Notoriously burn out... Then do a relay mod and never have that problem again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Check the connector to the bulb... Notoriously burn out... Then do a relay mod and never have that problem again! As said in the beginning i have already replaced the bulb socket connectors and installed the heavy duty healight relay wiring harness the problem is that wiring harness and relay still needs the headlight signal from the factory wiring from the headlight switch to turn the headlights off and on and some where after the headlight switch connector and the engine bay there is a break in the wire. Was seeing if there is another connector between those 2 that might be the problem but can't seem to locate one. Edited February 6, 2012 by wd21overland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alabama_lowlife Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 There is not a disconnect between the headlight and the switch on the drivers side. You'll have to trace down the red/blue wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) There seem to be two completely separate wires (from separate contacts) that go to the high beams. If one wire isn't pushing current, either there's a problem with the switch (and you replaced that), or it's the wire... so just tap into the other light's harness for your relay mod. Edited February 6, 2012 by Slartibartfast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 There seem to be two completely separate wires (from separate contacts) that go to the high beams. If one wire isn't pushing current, either there's a problem with the switch (and you replaced that), or it's the wire... so just tap into the other light's harness for your relay mod. Yeah signal is all its looking for so may just go that route i hate having broken/ pinched wires some where in the harness since it makes me think that the other wires around it might be close to the same (Pinch in the harness somewhere) but everything else on the truck is great so may just go the other route for this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 I found a really good wiring schematic of our headlight wiring so tracing the problem should be easy now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Ok looks like the headlight wiring goes from the headlight sockets to Joint Connector B (223M) and then from there to the headlight switch so i must now find that joint connector and everything will be easy from there. SO anybody have a idea where joint connector B and its number is 223M it says. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alabama_lowlife Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 92 wiring is clearly not the same as the newer stuff i have saved on my phone. The joint connectors I've dealt with are under the dash on the sides above the kick panels. They go through the cab to the inner fender and forward to the engine. If you take the plastic fender well liner off you should be able to get to the outside half. You may have to stand on your head to get to the inside half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahardb0dy Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 If you don't want to trace that wire down you can just run a wire from the working high beam across to the other one and be done, at least you could do this until you trace out the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lint Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Same thing happened to my '95 SE Automatic (No hi beam / driver's side). Initially, I cut the driver's side headlight pigtail Ground and made a new ground to the frame. This solved the problem, however it had a really weird glitch.... If the truck was started with the E-brake on, the diver's headlight wouldn't go on UNTIL I released the e-brake. After a month of that, I just relayed the lights, with the harness plugging into the passenger pigtail. Perfect result! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoore4512 Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 My apologies, I failed to read everything entirely. Corrosion may be a key player in this. It is much like a cancer and will follow the copper. Could be too much resistance caused by that... Or pinched or broken wire... Again, I apologize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 My apologies, I failed to read everything entirely. Corrosion may be a key player in this. It is much like a cancer and will follow the copper. Could be too much resistance caused by that... Or pinched or broken wire... Again, I apologize. Lol not a problem belive me i'm no better i was frustrated earlier since electrical is my profression i don't like to be stumped by simple wiring. SOOOO i got the diagrahm and had some fun lol. I started by checking the fuses even though the headlight were working i didn't want to skip and thing wellllll I didn't have power to either fuse ????? 1 fuse powers the left side high and low beam the other powers the right side low and high beam simple enough but i don't have power to my fuses which made no sense at all. So i did a ohm test / connectivity test to the battery since it is a direct link so no matter what it should make a complete circuit and nope it didn't. So i removed the screws holding the fuse/relay holder and removed the plastic sheathing and traced my wire back to find a break but no luck it goes more and more into the harness that i really didnt want to dig into tonight but still wondered how my headlight were working with no power to the fuses. So i then removed the steering column cover again and started tracing from there and yep found it lol. Apparently some time ago when the previous owner had it power going to the fuses must have been broke either by a broken wire or fusible link( will need to dig into that) and instead of fixing it he tapped into power wiring going to the parking lights that were going to the switch there the pink wires. Now i will admit its my fault to not have thought something was weird when i first bought it because when the parking lights were on the headlight were also on. The guy i bought it from said it had DRL's and i know some wd21's from canada had that option so i never really looked into it. i know shame on me. So i removed the taps he had from the parking lights and no more headlight on when the parking lights go on Hooray. NOW here the bad news i now have NO headlights period thats reallllly bad. So i cut 4 ft of power with 15 amp inline fuse like the stock system and ran it inside and connect 1 to the red wire Left side and 1 to the red with white striped wire right side on the head light switch and headlight work again both low and high beams hooray. so after all this work i found my original problem that was neglect so long ago. I have no power going to both my headlight fuses and its not the fuse both sides of the wire are dead of power. SO after all of this does anyone have any idea why i wouldn't have any power going to them is there some fusible link that might be bad the schematic doesn't show it at all just battery right to fuse. Worse comes i will just run new wires to the headlight fuses and go from there but i like keep stuff stock so not real happy about my rigging of my headlights but will work until i can figure out whats going on. Sorry for such a long post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Ok so after thinking about it this morning the schematic only shows the battery and then the fuses for the headlights. Since i have no power at the headlight fuses and i don't see a broken wire. Is it possible that one of the weird looking connectors coming off the positive side battery terminal be a problem? The battery has the starter cable and then a black box attached to the positive cable with 2 connectors coming out of it. The factory parts catalogs show them to be fusible links but there not what i'm used to seeing are these connectors known to go bad? I found a few pics on the forum where members have taken the connectors out of the equation and just wired them all neatly to new battery terminal connectors. Anybody know of any problems with the connectors and if they power the headlights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Fusible links can definitely go bad. I had the connectors go bad on one of mine a few years ago, and ended up hacking it out, and using a marine style terminal to connect everything that previously was wired via the fusible links. http://www.iboats.com/Battery-Jack/dm/cart_id.274325333--session_id.727511683--view_id.38869 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Fusible links can definitely go bad. I had the connectors go bad on one of mine a few years ago, and ended up hacking it out, and using a marine style terminal to connect everything that previously was wired via the fusible links. http://www.iboats.com/Battery-Jack/dm/cart_id.274325333--session_id.727511683--view_id.38869 Marine style looks like the wingnut on top of them right? If so i think thats the one i will go with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 That's the battery with the wingnuts. The marine terminals are the boxes that distribute power (similar to the fusible links) that are held on by said wingnuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!!! OK so during lunch i went outside and grab my multi meter and had some more fun. I set the meter up for ohms to check for a open circuit. I put 1 lead on the positive terminal and the other on the headlight fuse wiring and nope still had a open. so then i went from the fuse to the begining of the fusible link conector and had a good connection and hooray!!! so getting some where. so i then went from the end of the fusible link connetor to the fuse and still good! so i thought loose conection i plugged the fusbile link connector back into the battery terminal box and nope no good. So i know my problem is in the black terminal box that the fusible links plugs into. So i removed the box and sure enough the box was cracked at the bottom and 1 of the terminals has been tore away and it was the terminal that powered the headlights. So i called up nissan and they had the fusbile link terminal box in stock i love that dealership for $12 bucks so i went and picked 1 up along with the fuseable links since they were only $4 bucks each and very nice to have incase of 1 blowing. Attached the new fusible link terminal connector box and plugged int the connectors and everything works good to go. Also on a side note everything electrical minus the starter cable runs through the fusible link box and the plastic was very brittle so if your every having any electrical problems look there. Here is a picture of what it looks like the 2 fusible link connectors plug into it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowTied Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Congrats on the fix! So if I was following along correctly, once the previous owner shyt was fixed it was an issue of both headlights out, not just one. Right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackspawn Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I have the exact same problem, driver side high beam not working. This problem just started a couple weeks ago. I can move the headlight switch toggle forward before its in the locked hi beam position and both light are on. I think my problem is a bad headlight switch. What do you guys think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 I have the exact same problem, driver side high beam not working. This problem just started a couple weeks ago. I can move the headlight switch toggle forward before its in the locked hi beam position and both light are on. I think my problem is a bad headlight switch. What do you guys think? Sounds like the terminals inside the headlight switch are losing connection. There is a write up somewhere around here about how to clean disasemble the switch , clean and put back together seems to work for most or just replace the switch depending on where you go its $35 to $55 bucks for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wd21overland Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Congrats on the fix! So if I was following along correctly, once the previous owner shyt was fixed it was an issue of both headlights out, not just one. Right? Yeah i think the 1 headlight not working on high might have been the switch it self but yeah when the headlights quit working for him it he just tapped the parking lights so the headlights were on when the parking lights were on. I will admit it did work but the parking lights and the headlights were all getting power from 1 (10) amp fuse not the best idea lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackspawn Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Sounds like the terminals inside the headlight switch are losing connection. There is a write up somewhere around here about how to clean disasemble the switch , clean and put back together seems to work for most or just replace the switch depending on where you go its $35 to $55 bucks for it. I'm going the buy a new one route,I priced one at AutoZone for $56. Thanks,bro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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