02 Boxster S Dim Headlights.

[motojosh]

New owner of an 02 Boxster S. The low beams are extremely dim (can barely tell they are on), high beams function normally. Any ideas?

Thanks for the help,

Josh

[savowood]

Take a look at the glass. Not the plastic part, but the glass behind that up close to the bulb. If it's brown, then you found your problem. My guess is it's caused by putting Silver Star bulbs in there instead of the standard ones. I had it happen on two cars. Now I use only standard bulbs.

-Michael

[pk2]

Another possibility is you have high resistance in the low-beam circuit. Since it's both bulbs it's probably not the bulb sockets (what are the odds) but maybe the switch or any other electrical connection both bulbs share.

Regards, PK.

Edited December 1, 2010 by pk2

[JFP in PA]

As the headlights are relatively high amperage, I'd also take a look at ground connections, including the battery............

[grover]

They will dim like that whenever the car is off; do they change to normal intensity while the car is running, or remain dim? Could be a bad contact in the headlight switch; it's a notorious failure item, and the low beam contacts get the highest workout of anything in the switch.

[juniinc]

wouldn't hurt to check the alternator output.

[RFM]

Sometimes happens that the low beams are not functioning, in this case only the park lights are on, and they looks, of course, very dim. I would check that first.

[Bladecutter]

I would recommend swapping the high beam bulbs to the low beam sockets, and vice versa.

If you then have low beams, but no high beams, then you just found out your bulbs were both burnt out at the same time.

BC.

[motojosh]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Didn't notice this before but in both the parking light position and low beam position the brightness or lack there of is the same. Bulbs are not brown in color. All other lighting positions work, fog lights etc. Don't think the alternator would be an issue with the high beams working fine.

thanks for the help,

Josh