Intrigue Right High Beam is out

Hi...I am hoping that someone can help.

My wifes right highbeam is out on a 02 Intrigue. The bulb is good and all other lights work. The left high beams work fine and all the low beams work.

I checked the fuses under the hood and both are good.

I checked the Voltage going to each bulb and I have 12V on the left leads and only 3V on the right. Any ideas what would cause this?

I appreciate any help.

Hartwa.

I'm guessing it's the socket that the bulb itself snaps into. I had problems with the passenger side low beam headlight, to the point where the inside of the headlamb connector (inside the headlamp assembly) actually turned black, and charred.

I ended up picking up a pigtail connector for the bulb at a parts store, and then I cut the lamp connector off (the one inside the headlamp assembly), and used wirenuts to connect the new socket plug.

Much cheaper this way, than buying an entire headlight assembly.

The entire assembly can be removed from the car by lifting up on the white plastic retainers behind each headlight.

This allows you to do this little operation on the kitchen table, vs a garage in Minnesota or Wisconsin right now!

I might have pictures of this repair if this message doesn't make sense.. This should be an easy repair.

Thanks...I appreciate the help.

one question... The low voltage on the right side of 3V is with the lamp unplugged. The otherside (that works) has a voltage of 12V with the lamp unplugged. Both of these measurements are done without the lamp. Does that still make sense to you?

I looked at the HL assembly and the point that the HL sets into is all plastic..no metal at all. If you do not mind I would like to see your pictures...maybe yours is different.

thanks...

I believe we are understanding eachother. Your testing voltage by removing the bulb, and probing inside the connector?

You should have 12 Volts on both sides. 3 Volts on one side isn't enough to light a headlight.

The part of the headlamp assembly that the bulb "locks" into is plastic. The bulb is grounding itself through the wire that's part of the socket, not the headlight assembly.

I'm thinking the socket that the bulb plugs into may be bad.

I don't know if I have pictures of the repair on this computer. Send me an e-mail or private message with an e-mail address to contact you with and I'll look.

Maybe someone else will chime in here, but I think you've got socket issues with the socket that holds the high beam bulb..

I will try to get a pic when my wife gets home. I did look at the connections on the socket and they look good.

You are thinking if I cut the socket off and tested the wires I should then get 12V's. Then just wire nut a new one on?

Unless the terminals are corroded, I don't think the socket is the source of the problem.

It sounds like you just checked the voltage at/between the leads at the plug.

Connect the ground lead to chassis/ground, and the other test lead with the orange wire. Check the voltage you have coming off the orange wire. It should be 12V (at ALL times; regardless of headlight/high beam switch position) because this wire is the +12V supply. If you have +12V here than the problem is with the other wire (pink/black) which is the ground supply. It is an indirect ground connection that is switched at the high beam switch so it may be difficult to test. Because it is an indirect connection, it may not test zero resistance (which would be normal) if you check the resistance between this lead and chassis/ground.

Based on the wiring diagram, it looks like a bad fog lamp relay could be a possibility as well. You can temporarily swap in the horn relay on any other relay that is similar to see if that fixes the problem.

I've attached a pic of the wiring diagram. It's still legible, but a bit blurry though b/c I had to compress it alot to get under the 100 KB file size limit.

Good luck

38203

Thanks for the help....

The socket has a green and yellow lead. Is the diagram for a 02 intrigue? This car does not have fog lights. In any case I checked the voltage to ground (body & battery) of both leads and there is only about 0.3V on one. Checking between the voltage between the 2 leads is only 0.3V now too. Hmmm...

I am thinking I maybe am not following your instructions right???

I appreciate the help...

Hartwa--

I think Ruley73's electrical diagram is probably right. But those colors on the wiring diagram are for the colors of wires comming to the large plug at the back of the headlight, NOT the wire colors inside the headlight assembly that attach to the bulb socket.

It might be worth removing the headlight and checking for 12V power at the actual main plug to the light assembly. Maybe it's a short inside the headlight? I agree that if the socket is not burned, then there's probably no need to cut of the socket and wire nut on a new one.

Ok ...thanks again for the help.

I checked the orange lead at the main connector and it only reads 1V. I checked the left side main plug and the orange one there has 12V. In both cases I grounded the voltmeter to the chassis.

I read the diagram and it looks like the low beam and high beam are on the same fuse...is there a short in the wire harness?

Hartwa-- I think Ruley73's electrical diagram is probably right. But those colors on the wiring diagram are for the colors of wires comming to the large plug at the back of the headlight, NOT the wire colors inside the headlight assembly that attach to the bulb socket.

It might be worth removing the headlight and checking for 12V power at the actual main plug to the light assembly. Maybe it's a short inside the headlight? I agree that if the socket is not burned, then there's probably no need to cut of the socket and wire nut on a new one.

This is a good point. I totally forgot about how all the circuits plug into the headlamp assembly with one plug and the circuits/power branch off from it inside the headlamp assembly.

I don't own the Intrigue any more so please forgive my oversight. I still chime in here when I can because I know that the owners of these cars need all the help they can get since they only made them for 5 years and finding people with any useful knowledge of the DOHC 3.5L in these cars can be tough. (that's not meant to undermine the regulars in here...you know who you are :) )

Ruley72—I definitely agree that Intrigue Owners can use any help they can get. Finding shops that are familiar with the 3.5L or the Intrigue for that matter is nearly impossible

Hartwa—

I’ve got a similar electrical schematic that shows that both the right and left side headlight are individually fused to separate 15 amp fuses in the panel under the hood near the battery.

There is one fuse for the passenger side and one for the driver side.

It looks like there are two wires from the power side of each of these fuses. One is orange and black and this controls the low beams, and one is solid orange and this powers the high beams.

With only 1V on the orange wire when grounding to chassis this is too low. With any voltage the fuse must be good? But there’s a short in the wire.

I don’t see any factory splices in the schematic that I have. I believe that it runs directly to the fuse box.

You need to get 12V to this orange wire on the right side. It might be worth checking where the wires connect to the fuse in the fuse box. You can easily get access to the back of the box by removing the two 13mm nuts on the passenger strut tower and lifting the fusebox upwards.

It might be worth using a long temporary jumper wire to get 12V 15Amps to the orange part of the connector. If the lights work then it’s time to just run a new wire from the fusebox to that orange wire in the headlight connector.

Or give up on the highbeams.

Good Luck

Thanks everyone for the help.

I found the break in the wire. Looks like a mouse nipped the casing. I factory conduit is all chewed up to. I just soldered in a spice and the HB works fine now. Step 2... get that mouse.

Thanks again...

I'm glad it worked out for you. Hopefully your little mouse friend didn't leave any leaves/debris in you air filter housing.

I had a mouse that removed all sorts of insulation out of a partially finished garage, and decided to pack the top of the Intrigue Air filter full. Supprisingly the car still ran, but the gas milage was really bad the following spring. That's when I found his little nest.