Got in the Miata last night after work @ midnight, and went to pull out of the lit parking lot, and realized I had no headlights. Hi-beams work, but no lows....I have a hard time believing BOTH went out at the same time. I just disconnected the headlight motors and aimed them down a bit and drove home with hi-beams but was still nervous as hell every time I passed a cop on the 25mile trip home(and there are ALOT of bored cops out where I live). :( am I missing something? poor thing just hit 200k and is due real soon for some serious TLC but I need it to last another month or so while I get the other car up and going.....
Hmmm, could be a ground issue, which I am chasing now with my 97, but I at least had really dim low beams. Oh, and melted connectors too! Check the connectors while you are in there, might be a sign.
I've seen headlights blow in pairs before. Perhaps there's a voltage surge that takes out the second one when #1 goes out. It should be fairly easy to determine if the problem is the light or the wiring though. I'd start there.
I'll take a look this afternoon between jobs. Thanks for the ideas on where to start.
I've had both low beams burn out at the same time before also. Not on the Miata though. Drove me crazy trying to figure out what was wrong and it didn't occur to me that both would burn out at the same time. After all, what are the odds of that? When I checked voltage to the bulbs and found that good was when I figured it had to be both bulbs. Replaced and fixed.
My thoughts exactly....both??????AT the SAME TIME? WTF? oh well, wanted silverstars anyway, was just waiting on em to go....
Is it possible one burned out a while ago? I usually mention headlights out to other drivers in parking lots, etc. and I'm always amazed how many don't know they are down to one light.
Sultan
Reader
3/6/12 1:43 p.m.
mine went within days of each other....
I live in a pretty rural area the low height of the miata's lights don't give you much distance as it is,(I've seriously thought about a rally style light bar just above the front bumper) add to it driving up to a gate that clearly show's both beams as you come up, I tend to notice em pretty quickly. It is possible though.
New headlights did the trick. Thanks for the advice guys.
If you want better light out of an NA Miata, get a set of H4 conversions. Dramatically better.
http://www.flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=4543&parentid=0&stocknumber=28-17100
That's painful..... just spent 10$ less than that on the silverstars I put in.
I had that happen to a fiat I owned. Had been driving on the highs, switched down to lows for traffic.. it got VERY bright for a moment.. and then VERY dark.
Drove home on a single highbeam. Replaced the headlights, never had a problem again
What I find funny, I live in NJ, so my highbeam time is extremely limited.. as in maybe an hour's worth in the past 10 years... one of the highbeams in the Bimmer is burnt out
I spend ALOT! of time with the high beams on, but at the same time, it's usally a cop I'm crossing paths with during my evening commute home. So fail to turn off the high beams, and it's usually a trip to the side of the road with disco lights going on behind you. Like I said, LOTS of bored cops!
