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Hey guys, I've been searching for a bit but couldn't find anything on this problem in particular. If there's a thread I missed, sorry in advance
So my headlights flicker when going over rougher roads. At a standstill, they seem fine, but on highway bumps they'll ever so slightly dim then rebrighten. However, on hard braking/acceleration it flickers nearly on and off.
I checked the fuses, connectors, and grounds to no avail. From what I understand, if the bulbs were going out they would black out, however whenever the car comes to rest its like there's nothing wrong with the lights at all.
I had a ballast issue with one of my headlights but it would flash on and off, new ballast and all is good.
For your issue being both headlights I would check the grounds located on each side of the radiator on the inner fenders, hopefully just needs to be cleaned and tightened.
I gave the grounds a good clean and it didn't seem to solve the problem. Is just wiping them down good enough or should I clean them with some kind of solvent?
Yeah I was afraid it would be the ballast. Guessing there's no way to test it and make sure? If AP1 ballasts are known to fail, is there a better aftermarket/OEM alternative?
Ground connections are best cleaned by disconnecting, clean with a wire brush, steel wool or emery cloth to remove surface oxides then reconnecting. Metal oxides are typically non- conductive which is why they have to be removed.
If both lights started exhibiting this problem at the same time, the cause is likely to be one thing that affects both lights - as far as I know, one bad ballast does not affect both lights. Are you sure the problem affects both lights?
Ground connections are best cleaned by disconnecting, clean with a wire brush, steel wool or emery cloth to remove surface oxides then reconnecting. Metal oxides are typically non- conductive which is why they have to be removed.
Tried this out last night, cleaned them with a wire brush but didn't give me any luck. Didn't think of this though, I'll keep it in mind. Thanks man
Originally Posted by rpg51
If both lights started exhibiting this problem at the same time, the cause is likely to be one thing that affects both lights - as far as I know, one bad ballast does not affect both lights. Are you sure the problem affects both lights?
Yeah that's part of the reason why I'm so confused. It definitely affects both headlights. I believe it may affect the high beams as well.
Originally Posted by Billman250
Moisture in the printed circuit of the ballast can cause flickering. They can be dried out with compressed air and will be good as new.
I'll give this a shot when I can get the car on jacks.
Okay, sorry for the long wait, it took a while for me to get the time to put it on jacks and test it out.
I tried what Billman said, and sadly it looks like it didn't have any effect. I took a picture of the circuit board, in case you can parse some other issue it may be having.
That being said, I was able to capture video of the issue as it was happening. Try to ignore the bad driving
So a few corrections/things to note:
1. It looks like it's just the right headlight that's flickering, not the left one nor the brights.
2. It's a bit more random than I thought it was, happening during mild acceleration, mild braking, and conversely sometimes not happening during hard braking.
3. That stuff being said, it does not flicker at all when the car is standing still. I double checked this and had it sit with the lights on for a solid fifteen minutes. Not a single blink flicker or dimming.
11-13-2017, 01:07 PM
AP1 headlights flickering
