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Intermittent headlight

Matts98XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Western Mass
First off, Hello! I just purchsed a 98 XJ (yeah the name gives it away) :yap: as a second/winter vehicle. This is the first Jeep I have owned. I am a Mustang guy at heart.

Secondly, there appears to be an intermittent passenger side low beam issue. The high beams work great but for some reason the low beam seems to work when it wants to which appears to be less often then not. The Jeep was purchased from someone I know and was told it regularly had the bulb changed but the same problem continued. I HATE dealing with anything electrical so I assume I am going to have an issue with wiring somewhere along the lines (because that's my luck haha!). I also did a search and could not find anything fairly recent about this issue. What do you guys think?
 
When I had that problem in my '69 Charger, it was a broken tab on the headlamp itself, the tab made intermittent contact and thus the headlamp low beam intermittently went on and off. A new headlamp fixed the problem.

If the prevous owner says he had the problem after changing headlamps multiple times, it doesn't sound like a broken tab on the headlamp.

Hate to say it, but your going to have to do the electrical troubleshooting. Get yourself a $20 multi-meter from Walmart and start checking the contacts. Another sure sign of a short, look for smoke under the hood when the condition occurs, where ever the smoke rises is likely where your short is at.

I'm rather new at XJ's myself, hopefully there is a common and convienient malfunction that someone more familiar with XJ's will point out to fix the problem.
 
The plug in the back of the headlight can get pretty crusty looking. The wiring for the headlight runs through a round hole in the front clip which is a likely spot for a rub. I always sort the wiring out as best I can and put some plastic armor around the wiring, whenever I'm in there. It is sure enough a likely spot for a short.
Usually when that has happened to me, it was because the element in the biulb was broken on one end. It would make iffy contact, the element got hot and would heat flex and move, when it cooled again it would fall back into position and make some kind of contact.
People lie, I'd look at the headlight and see if it is the same brand as the other side. If they are both the same brand and look identical, it's likely it hasn't been changed out.
If you go in there and take it apart, use a good screwdriver, that fits well and grease all the bolts and screws before reassembly. Which will really save you some aggrivation, the next time. Some of those screws are a pain and I beleive have a DIN or metric head. It's someitmes hard to find a screwdriver with a good fit. Try not to tear up the heads any more than necessary and don't overtighten when reinstalling.
 
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