no lowbeam headlights!

[busydad05]

daughter tells me her 2001 pt headlights dont wprk--hi beams only. check all fuses, replace headlight relay, still no go. replace multifunction switch--twice!!- still only high beams (although 2nd new switch did get her foglights working again! hoo ray!) when highbeams are on, i can see that the low beam bulbs are working. with highs on, if i pull numbers 19 ans 20 fuses, the low beam bulbs go out, so i know that part of low beam circuit is working. i'm at a loss for what to check next! multi switch was $118 at autozone. hope i dont have to buy a 3rd one!! anything like a fusible link i may be missing??? any help is appreciated. for now, so she can use the car, i'm gonna pull the high beam bulbs, leave the switch on high, and her low beams will be on.

thanks!

[quicksilverdon]

Welcome.
Examine the bulb connectors carefully - seems like you have a short between low & high beams.
Were higher amp bulbs put in? That can cause melting of the wiring at the socket.

[busydad05]

thanks quick for answering. i checked the sockets--when pulling out high beam bulbs-- and they and wires to them all seem fine. with high beam bulbs pulled, she can now drive the car at night with the low beams working--she just wont have highs now and has to put up with that blue light on her dash! everything seems to point to the multi function switch--but like i said, i'm on my 3rd one and still no luck. we bought the car in july in massachucetts, drove it home with plate from wifes kia!, and except for front brake pads, it has been an excellent car. these headlights are driving me nuts tho! any other suggestions??
thanks in advance!

[CREWZIN]

Did you replace the 25amp silver fuse that on top of the regular fuses in the interior fuse box. The left one is for the Power Windows, the right one is for the Head Lamps.

[busydad05]

thanks for the suggestion, crewzin. yes, i did that earlier tonight, to no avail. i also replaced the headlamp relay last week and outcome was same---no low beams. what a pain in the butt this is!! its starting to take that love-of-first car edge away from my daughter!. any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated. being i take care of 5 cars a motorcycle and an old RV, i dont really want to spend the money at a dealer just yet. as the Kinks would say--- I'm on a lowwww budjet!!
THANKS!!!

[quicksilverdon]

Check at the MF switch connector - there has to be a short between High & low somewhere and connectors are prime candidates.
Also - if that connector is flaky, would explain why you needed several MF switches - 2nd one was probably good, connector is hit or miss.....

[bcjones88]

Same symptom here. My low-beam headlights only worked some of the time. High-beams and low-beams both worked when the high-beams were on. I found that the power to the multi-function switch for the low-beams had melted the connector shell and corroded the pin in the shell on the back of the m-f switch. In my case, the cause was dead obvious when you pulled the m-f switch assembly and looked at the connector. (It is possible that the same problem might not produce a visible sign.) It looked like I needed to replace both the connector and the switch--yikes! Instead I modified my way around that expensive proposition; I wired around the connector.
Here's what I did. I cut a vertical slot in the connector shell next to pin 16 on the m-f switch, that is, I cut a slot a little wider than the flat connector pin with a razor knife. I then bent pin 16 of the m-f switch connector 90 deg. so it protruded outside the connector and was sufficiently flush to the bottom of the connector that the plug from the cable would still seat all the way down. I scraped the corroded pin shiny with an Exacto knife, tinned it with solder and soldered on a 6 inch long, #16 copper-stranded pigtail wire. Next I snipped off flush the vio-white wire that connected to pin 16 of the cable-mounted plug. Finally, I used a crimp splice to connect the pigtail to the vio-white wire from the cable and reassembled everything. (You could also use a red wirenut to join the two wires.) Worked fine, cost nothing.
The failure was caused by corrosion leading to excessive heat due to the use of an inadequate connector (or the choice to run all the lowbeam current through the m-f switch--dumb). If the soldering is beyond you, take it to a TV or stereo repair shop and get them to do it. It needs to be done well since it is going to carry 8 amps or so.
The PT in question is a 2003.

[monitor51]

So I'm not the only one. My wifes 01 does the same thing in winter. Seemed that when it would get down to 20 degrees the low beams quit but the highs still worked. Just never have gotten around to getting a new MFS. Now I don't know if I need to be scared or curious about what I'm going to find.