HELP: Useless High Beams
 

Hey I'm driving around in a '95 model that I picked up as a hand-me-down from my grandmother. Since the first day I got it I realized the high beams were not much more effective than the low beam lights. When behind another car one day and I was able to see my lights in the reflection, I saw that my low-beams turn off whenever I turn the high beams ON, thus making them absolutely useless. My model has fog lights which i typically keep on, I tried turning them off and then trying, thinking maybe the car was restricted to a certain amount of lights on at once....nothing. Anybody know if this is a defect in the car that I should get looked at or a simple thing I could fix myself? Thanks.

When your highs go one the lows go off, I dont think theres a need for both at the same time , kinda defeats the purpose of highs

Almost all cars do this... go check another one ;)

You should check and see if your lights are aimed properly. Your low beams SHOULD flick off when your high beams are activated. I know I see whatever I want to see with my high beams on, and they're stock bulbs. As for the low beams, I have silverstars on the way to fix that.

My bet is your lights aren't aimed properly. A quick, ROUGH way to determine if they're semi accurate is this: park on a level surface about 20 ft away from a wall of some sort. My garage door works well. Measure how high your lights are on the vehicle, record that data. Go up to the wall, and try to find the edge of the light. That edge of the light should have relatively the same clearance from the ground as the headlight on the car does.

Now this doesn't check left-right accuracy, but if they look like there's a huge dark spot between both beams, or like they're concentrated in the middle, I think you may want to take your car to the shop and have them aim your lights for you. They use an electronic aimer that uses light sensitive sensors to aim your lights dead on.

As for the fogs, they'll only work when the low-beams are on, per law. In PA, if your high beams are on and your fog lights are still able to be turned on, it's considered a failed inspection. Not to mention you'll be blinding other drivers like crazy.

response
 

I really don't think it has anything to do with aiming haha. I wasn't aware that the low beams turned off when the high beams went on in all cars, I was pretty sure they both stayed on and thats why they blind you so bad. Maybe I'm wrong, but to comment further my foglights do ALWAYS stay on, regardless of which lights I'm using, that I'm not complaining about. I'd still like to see both of my lights work at the same time tho..

unless someone modified it, your fogs only work with low beams

I'll check again when I drive next. So strange. I've been wrong about lights this whole time haha.