headlights go off while driving

[Ron Fenske]

I have a 2002 Buick Regal and the headlights just started to act strange. While driving I have had several times that the headlights just went out, of course I notice it at night. What could be causing this? They either come right back on or one time I turned on the manual switch, nothing happen, but when I moved the dimer switch they came on. Not sure this had anything to do with the lights coming back on or not, maybe. I called the GM dealer and there is no recall for this type of problem. Not sure what to do to trouble shoot it.

Any ideas?

rf

[MagicRat]

Nothing livens up your evening drive in the country like losing the headlights.
Most headlights use a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. (Usually, all the other lights such as the running lights etc are on a seperate, fused circuit. )
These breakers are designed to reset themselves when they blow.
So, something in your headlight system is drawing too much current and is tripping the breaker. Your lights go out, but after a few seconds your breaker will cool down enough to reset itself, until the next time. Possibly you have an intermittent short in the system, or a too-high electrical drain. Often, a defective headlight bulb or socket would cause this problem.
You could first try installing a new circuit breaker, since the existing one might be defective.

[public]

My 98 century burnt the connection attached to the bottom of the steering column. There is a large plug into the body harness. I had to tap into the wire on each side and bypass the plug.

[Ron Fenske]

thanks for your replys I have somewhere to start, I will try to find the breaker and see what I can do on my own

Ron

[NyChris2004]

make sure all ur lights work, high beam/low beam, taillights all of them, a broken light can make a bad ground , same thing was happenin to me in my Tempo, found out that i had a broken fog light and it was shortin out the whole system whenever i had my low beams on.

[Ron Fenske]

thanks - that makes sence to me - and I think I have a burned out fog light. Will replace it

Ron

[Ron Fenske]

I now have it down to the headlights going off when I am driving at night with the lights on highbean. They go off but the fog lights and tail lights stay on. As soon as I put the lights to low beam the low beam headlights come on and life is good. What would cause the highbeams not to work but the lowbeams are ok and don't seem to cause any problems.

Ron

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by Ron Fenske

I now have it down to the headlights going off when I am driving at night with the lights on highbean. They go off but the fog lights and tail lights stay on. As soon as I put the lights to low beam the low beam headlights come on and life is good. What would cause the highbeams not to work but the lowbeams are ok and don't seem to cause any problems.

Ron

Good job on isolating the offending circuit.
However, my advice as posted above remains. Fortunately the job is easier now, you now have only two possible offending bulbs/sockets and only one wiring circuit to troubleshoot.

[Jessica85]

yes its almost absolutely more than likely its a headlight...just replace both ur headlights, its not expensive at all and that should fix the problem, because the cars fairly new so i doubt an electrical problem already, but thats just assuming..