2004 grand am dim headlight

[scottbrand2003]

we have a 2004 grand am with the passenger front headlight is dim, and is the same even when the brights are turned on. the driver one works great no problems. about a month ago I hit a deer and busted out the headlight and fog light. we bought a replacement one at a junk yard and got a new headlight bulb from parts store. I have used the bulb in the drivers side to see if that was the problem but it worked great on driver side. I need to know where the grounds are for the headlights because we couldn't find one for that side. and the fuses are ok we checked them. and we replaced bent wires from the damage from the deer and still no change.

thanks for any help we can get.

[GTP Dad]

Welcome to AF!!

You are certainly on the right track as this is a grounding issue. Unfortunately, I can't help you on the location of the wire on an '04 although you should be able to find it by tracing the wire from the light to the termination point. If you cannot find it splice in another ground to the current wire and connect it to a ground point. This should solve the problem.

[Tech II]

To check if it is a ground issue, back probe voltmeter leads into the harness connection to see what you have for voltage across the bulb, and compare to the other bulb.....if there is a disparity, then there is a drop somewhere(like a ground).....if the voltage is the same but the bulb is dim, then the problem is the socket/harness connection....

[xeroinfinity]

double check your wire connections. you also could have a pinched/broken wire not allowing all the voltage to get thru. As TechII mentioned testing voltages should show you what wire(s) are not getting 24vlts.

Also you wire repairs should be soldered and use heat shrink tubing to keep them from corroding. Seen a lot of them like this, then the corrosion eats away at the wires inside the plastic casing.