Billynoyola

Stock 1990 jeep Cherokee larado passanger side head light works it's just significantly more dim then drivers side.

-No highbeams at all

-bulbs have been replaced and tested in another xj before being installed.

-wire colors
Black /Black and white on Male end
black / black and green on female end


-ALSO there is the wire and connector coming out of the wiring harness and I can't for the life of me figure out where it goes. Previous owner did not take care of it as most previously owned jeeps seem to be victim to.

Heres the wire and connector

Goes down behind the headlight into the main wiring harness

dave1123

Check the chassis ground connection behind the headlight.

Red1992XJ

In addition to checking grounds, it might not be a bad idea to do the headlight harness upgrade. It goes for about 25 bucks from ksuspension. The harness take power direct from the battery and only uses the headlight switch as a signal for the relays. Your lights will be brighter overall.

Noah911

It definitely sounds like a ground issue when having a dim headlight. The ground circuit provides a path for the electricity from the headlights to return to the negative terminal of the battery. The ground wire should be a short wire attached to the chassis near the headlight. The chassis provides the remainder of the return path to the battery.

The headlight ground is easy to check. If there are two or three wires coming from the backside of the headlight connector, then one of those wires is the ground. If there are four wires coming off the connector, then two of them are for the ground. You should be able to follow them back far enough to determine which is ground too. It will be the wire(s) that are attached to the Jeeps chassis.

Or, you can test them with a voltmeter to find out which is ground in this way too. Turn the high beams on. Set the voltmeter to DC VOLTS. Place one of the voltmeter leads touching to the chassis (or the negative battery terminal) for a grounding point and the other voltmeter lead touching to each of the individual wires. The one with 12 VOLTS on it is the high beams power wire and is not the ground. Next, turn on just the low beams and repeat the above procedure. The wire reading 12 VOLTS is the power wire for the headlight low beam and is not the ground. The remaining wire (or wires) are the ground.

You can check the resistance of the ground wire(s) next if you wanted.. Set the voltmeter to the Ohms setting. Place one of the voltmeter leads to the chassis and the other lead touching it to the ground wire just identified. If the resistance shows continuity (zero resistance) this ground wire is okay. If the reading shows some continuity (a high resistance), check for corrosion and/or a loose connection of the ground wire. Clean the connections of this ground...

For yours, the reading should not show as having 'no' continuity (infinite resistance) because this would mean the headlight ground circuit is open (broken or heavily corroded). This would not allow for the headlight to show as being dimm if this were the case.

It is probably the connections. If cleaning the headlight ground connections does not bring back continuity, or solve the problem? It could maybe be the wire beneath of the insulation is corroded. You could check along the wire length ends themselves for resistance. Or, replace the wire in this case.

Noah911

The headlamps share a common ground for both the high and the low beams. Having one dim low beam like this does indicate as having a bad ground. Since the high beams also share this same common ground.. this might be the reason for why the high beams are not working to function any at all too?

It could also be two separate issues are occuring?


Another possible reason for having no high or low beams is having a faulty dimmer switch. The dimmer switch is separate from the headlamps switch. The dimmer switch is supposedly located under the dash on top of the steering column and near to the firewall.

(edited):
You may probably want to switch on the high beams and look to see if you have any voltage or not on the high beams wire? You may find it is missing voltage for on the high beams wires? If so.. You can check for battery voltage coming from the headlamps switch to see if it is going to the dimmer switch. If it is.. This points to having a faulty dimmer switch as the reason for not having any high beams. You could check further to see if there is battery voltage leaving the dimmer switch and going up to the high beams. If there is.. this indicates having an open somewhere along the wires leading away from the dimmer switch to the headlamp high beams.

cruiser54

CRUISER'S MOSTLY RENIX TIPS

CONNECTOR AND RELAY/RECEPTACLE REFRESHING

OCTOBER 30, 2015 SALAD 24 COMMENTS



I suggest unplugging EVERY electrical connection in the engine bay you can find, whether engine related or not, and spraying it out with a , visually inspecting the terminals making sure they haven’t retracted into the plastic holder, and then plugging it back together.

There’s a critical 10-pin connector for the front lighting system located in front of the air cleaner and behind the left headlight assembly. Don’t miss that one. Also be sure that the connectors to the ballast resistor mounted near the air cleaner housing are clean and tight.

ALL of the relays should be removed, the terminals wire-brushed until shiny, and the receptacles sprayed out with contact cleaner. Then plug them back in. I do this on every Renix Jeep I purchase or work on for someone else.

BlueRidgeMark

There ya go. Since they share a ground point, the harness is the prime suspect.

But you should clean up the ground point anyway! And X2 on the harness suggestion, but note that this will not cure your problem. It's a "while you are in there, this is a good idea" kind of thing.

Noah911

Do these year Jeeps have the option to pull back on the stalk (or something like it) for a second to flash the high beams? If they do have an option like this, and when you flash the high beams.. If they come on for the flash high beams option, then you know there is not an open in the wires leading up to the headlamps. This would indicate the switch to be the reason...

I heard it is likely to be the connection or connector located near or underneath of the air box.. where the headlamps wires lead back and connect up into going to the main wiring harness. I heard it is not very well waterproofed here, and it is susceptible to developing heavy corrosion at this spot; the connector pins will retract themselves and stop making contact, wires will wither away, etc...

dave1123

It could also be the lamp connector itself. Many times over the years I've found corroded slots in the bulb connectors which can be either filed clean or the connector replaced. That upgrade harness the guys talk about has ceramic connectors in case you want to go with H3 headlight units, BUT still use that original connector for the pass headlight as a connection point. Mine was corroded when I installed my upgrade harness.

BTW, One product I've found for sealing electrical splices is Liquid Electrical Tape. It's a paint-on rubber coating that seals out water very well.

BlueRidgeMark

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X2. It's good stuff.