In my 2012 Jeep Compass, the right headlight and blinker are not working. We changed the bulb, but it made no difference. The blinker will turn on but is very, very dim. I believe it may have a short of some kind? A few years ago, that same headlight went out for a few hours, and was back on by the time we got to the store to buy a new light. Any advice is appreciated, thanks so much.
I believe it isn’t a short but a corroded or broken ground connection. There is a wire or 2 or 3, usually black, coming off the plugs from the bulbs that should be attached to the metal body someplace close to the light. That wire likely has broken off and is hanging in space no longer connected. It needs the insulation stripped back a small amount and a new terminal crimped on and re-attached to the metal body.
6 Likes
You may be looking at the early signs of a failing Totally Integrated Power Module.
Tester
1 Like
The ground screw for the right headlamp is loose, tighten it.
1 Like
I suspect Testor is correct. The headlight and the turn signal are separate units.
1 Like
The right headlight and turn signal share the same ground, G104 located just to the left of the headlamp.
The headlight and turn signal have separate circuits in the TIPM, should they fail at the same time?.
Okay, I assumed (yes I know what that mean) they had seperate grounds.
I have yet to see a ground tighten itself after a few hours to where a circuit starts working again.
Tester
The fact that the light is dim suggests something is limiting the current flow, but it is not entirely disconnected. In other words a bad or corroded connection somewhere. All the connections in the circuit have to be considered suspects, including the ground (as above), the connector to the fixture, etc. If the ground screw isn’t the culprit (and that’s the place to start), the next is the connector(s) near the light fixture. If I had this problem I’d probably start by back-probing the voltage at the bulb connector. As posted above it might just be a problem in one of the control modules too.
I’ve never seen a screw tighten itself, but my Corolla had a rear tail-light with a loose ground connection. Sometimes it would work ok, and sometimes not. This was pointed out to me in a somewhat embarrassing location, at the DMV … lol … turned out that the nut affixing the fixture’s ground wire was loose. It was probably loose when I first purchased the car.
Or the wrong color. 