last night i noticed that one of my headlights was barely shining after i pulled into best buy. after i came back to the jeep, neither of the headlights were working and i had to drive back with just my fog lights on. The headlights came back on though about 10 minutes down the road. When i pulled in my driveway they were both still working so i turned the car off then back on and it took them a minute or so to kick in. Does anyone know what the problem could be? Do i need new lights or could it just be a fuse or wiring problem? Thanks for the help.

12/24/2007 4:11:14 PM

sounds like an electrical connection is going bad.. either a short in wiring, bad headlight switch, or something inbetween.

12/24/2007 4:53:13 PM

alright, i just checked it again today and one of the headlights was out, one working. I turned the car off, disconnected the battery, pulled the headlight fuse out, put it back in, connected the battery, started the car, and the lights had switched. The one that was out was working and the one that was working was not anymore. Is there anywhere in particular i should start checking for a bad connection or should i just take it to a shop?

12/24/2007 5:21:40 PM

Well, I have no idea where they connect (and I own the same car <_< ) but just focus on where it looks like the head lights are and (with the battery disconnected of course) look for any connectors at all in that area. Bust out some contact cleaner or steel wool (or whatever you prefer) and clean all the ones you see. Some of them could probably use it anyway.

If you don't have anything at all to clean any contacts with I'd just separate them and put them back together a bunch of times until it looked like they were connecting again. I would guess that (more than likely) the wires in your car aren't going bad, just the connectors got rusted up/dirty or are coming loose. This has explained all the electrical problems my car has had so far (2000 Jeep Cherokee), haha.

I wouldn't take it to a shop until you just try to clean the most obvious connectors and replace any fuses that are toast. For more advanced info on wiring you might want to ask on www.jeepforum.com.

[Edited on December 25, 2007 at 12:50 AM. Reason : ]

12/25/2007 12:50:13 AM

^,^^^ thanks for the help, i'll see what i can do about checking the connections. it's a '91 cherokee briarwood by the way, if that helps at all.

12/25/2007 1:09:32 AM

not to be captain obvious but did you check the body grounds?

12/26/2007 7:55:31 AM