High beam not working on one side

[KMC09]

Hello, 

I have an Auris hybrid touring sport 2015 and lately I realised that its high beam bulb is not working on one side. I checked the fuse, it was fine, so I changed both bulbs. It still didn't work. 

An acquaintance of mine happened to have the same car and we checked in his car; it had the same issue of one high beam light working.

Now I am confused, is it by default that only one high beam light works in our cars, or it is the coincidence that both cars have same issue.

Can someone share some information? 

Thanks. 

[flash22]

Are you checking the correct fuses you have the main headlamp fuse then two 10a for LH and RH low and two 10a for High is you have HID they will be 15a

 

[Wooster]

What headlight bulbs does the car have? 

[KMC09]

21 hours ago, flash22 said:

Are you checking the correct fuses you have the main headlamp fuse then two 10a for LH and RH low and two 10a for High is you have HID they will be 15a

 

I will check this today once again. I remember I had 2x7.5A for high beam lights. 

[KMC09]

16 minutes ago, Wooster said:

What headlight bulbs does the car have? 

It has D4S headlamps. 

[Wooster]

26 minutes ago, KMC09 said:

D4S headlamps.

OK - never mind.  It's just that my 2018 Auris has HIR2 bulbs and they only have one element.  High beam is achieved by a solenoid pulling a shutter out of the way.  But it looks like Ds4s have the (more standard) twin filaments. 

[flash22]

so you have the HID being D4S

HID uses two 7.5a fuses for the high beam, this controls a solenoid what moves a shutter over the bulb

 

[Wooster]

6 minutes ago, flash22 said:

solenoid what moves a shutter

So, maybe the solenoid has failed... ?

[flash22]

4 minutes ago, Wooster said:

So, maybe the solenoid has failed... ?

Yes or a wiring issue - power comes from the Headlamp fuse and passes through the headlamp relay then the power side of the Dim relay it then splits into the LH and RH 7.5a fuses then out to the headlights

[Wooster]

I was always used to headlamp bulbs having two filaments.  Or two separate, single filament bulbs - one for high beam and the other for low.  Why (on earth) do they make a bulb with one filament and use a shutter?  I thought things had moved away from mechanical, moving parts if possible - for the sake of reliability. What am i missing?

[furtula]

D4S should have their own separate ballast. I'd switch the bulbs around to see if it's ballast/bulb.

[flash22]

20 minutes ago, furtula said:

D4S should have their own separate ballast. I'd switch the bulbs around to see if it's ballast/bulb.

The headlight works, its 1 bulb it has shutter for low beam, that shutter opens for full beam via a solenoid, click on the diagram above

this is known as a projector headlight

https://retrofitlab.com/blogs/news/two-types-of-hid-projectors

[KMC09]

On 11/3/2022 at 1:11 PM, furtula said:

D4S should have their own separate ballast. I'd switch the bulbs around to see if it's ballast/bulb.

I have switched the bulbs over the weekend, both bulbs work fine on the right side.

[KMC09]

On 11/3/2022 at 11:19 AM, flash22 said:

Yes or a wiring issue - power comes from the Headlamp fuse and passes through the headlamp relay then the power side of the Dim relay it then splits into the LH and RH 7.5a fuses then out to the headlights

I have checked the fuse for high beams, they work fine, 

 

I am not sure how do I check this solenoid thing. 

[flash22]

check the power and grounds and the resistance of the solenoid

[furtula]

I think what flash22 wanted to say, in a bit simple terms, check if the solenoid is receiving power on it's pins, and measure the resistance of it with wires disconnected.

Set your multimeter on 2k ohms for this check (unless you have automatic one).

[KMC09]

2 hours ago, furtula said:

I think what flash22 wanted to say, in a bit simple terms, check if the solenoid is receiving power on it's pins, and measure the resistance of it with wires disconnected.

Set your multimeter on 2k ohms for this check (unless you have automatic one).

I understand that. I hope I will be able to do it tomorrow. 

[KMC09]

I have actually tried for a few times to find the solenoid for headlamp but I could not locate it. Then I browsed autoparts websites to find out how would it look like, expecting to find a similar shape under the hood but I couldn't find a solenoid for headlamps there either. Now that makes me wonder if it is even supposed to have a solenoid. 

 

[Gerg]

3 hours ago, KMC09 said:

Now that makes me wonder if it is even supposed to have a solenoid. 

The solenoid (assuming that yours follows the UK design non-HID model!) is inside the outer headlamp enclosure that you can see under the bonnet, but outside of the 'inner chamber' (optics, reflector etc.).  

I have a spare headlamp somewhere in the garage, if I get time I'll have a look to see if there is an obvious dedicated solenoid electrical connection.

The top photo (not my picture, this is from eBay) is an Auris Mk2 pre-FL headlamp removed from the car.

The next pictures are of the solenoid (which you can not see without breaking open the outer headlamp cover - don't do this!).  So these pictures are just for you to see what is not working on your car - you can't access these parts.

It's at the lowest point of the assembly with a couple of wires visible.

This one was from an accident-damaged headlamp which the outer Shell had been smashed.

The shutter assembly that is being moved for high beam/low beam operation, is shown by the green arrow.

This part may, just may, be visible when looking into the headlamp from the back through the bulb-fitting aperture, but you'll probably need the skills of a keyhole surgeon to spot this.

Hopefully, this de-mystifies it a little...

 

 

[flash22]

OP has HID's, the solenoid is built into the headlight - so you need to change the headlight for the same type (D4s)

remove the old, move over the ballast and bulbs to the new headlight and refit

[KMC09]

1 hour ago, Gerg said:

Hopefully, this de-mystifies it a little...

 

It actually helped me clearing the concept. Thank you, Gerg. 😁

[KMC09]

1 hour ago, flash22 said:

OP has HID's, the solenoid is built into the headlight - so you need to change the headlight for the same type (D4s)

remove the old, move over the ballast and bulbs to the new headlight and refit

Thank you. I will look into it. 😄

[Gerg]

On my HIR2 headlight, which is a r/h one, there is just one connector shared for the HIR2 bulb, daytime running light (DRL) and shutter arrangement.

The headlight solenoid is connected to the two pins shown with the arrows. 

Their conductors, on the short length of headlamp loom before they dissappear into the enclosure, are green and yellow wires that are visible in one of the pictures.

The resistance of the solenoid is 24 Ohms.

But, if the solenoid is jammed in one position, it will still read 24 Ohms!

If 12 volts is applied to these pins, then the shutter can clearly be heard to operate, but,  I would expect that this is fiddly to do (access) when the headlamp is on the car.  It might be much safer to monitor those specific pins in its female counterpart, and look for 12v to arrive across them when high beam is selected.

Note (in the earlier pictures) that the headlamp protrudes into the bumper cavity - removing the headlamp requires removing the bumper first.

 

[AisinW]

On 11/16/2022 at 2:01 PM, KMC09 said:

Thank you. I will look into it. 😄

If the low beam is fine, the high beam is from the same bulb.  Therefore, either it is selenoid or the relay.  check in the engine bay if you can locate the selenoid for the headlights.   Some of the relays are identical and you can switch around either from the AC, horn, etc to test.