Interestingly, your vehicle dashboard works as a messenger for the vehicle to bring into your attention anything that’s happening with the system. Any error indicated on the screen should never be ignored and promptly resolved. Headlight system is an essential part of a vehicle which works to ensure safety of yourself and others on the road. A bad headlight that is not illuminating the road may fetch not only accidents but also a heavy penalty for driving against standard driving conditions.
Usually when a headlight system stops working due to any reason, a warning message is shown up on the instrument cluster of your vehicle and indicates the error most probably happened with the DRLs. Before identifying if these are really DRLs that caused this malfunction, it is important to know and understand how the headlight system actually works.
How does the headlight system in Nissan work?
The basic purpose of headlights is to illuminate the road ahead of the vehicle to alert other drivers on the road for your car. It is a basic safety feature added since ever in vehicles to make them safe for the road users. These headlights use halogens, LEDs and xenons bulbs: halogen (which is based on the technology that has been around for decades), xenon (which uses newer technology to create longer-lasting, brighter light) and LED, which is the newest, most energy-efficient type of automotive light. Although the latest LED bulbs are widely used for daytime running lights on new cars that me be used as headlights as well. Headlights are mainly powered by the vehicle’s electrical system and can be toggled with a high and low beam.
Possibly there could be a myriad of reasons to look for, when you’ve got this error message on your dashboard but the most common cause is the failure of the bulb which in case is the DRLs.
Possible Causes:
- Just like any other electronic component, a bulb can complete its life over a period of time and needs to be replaced so first of all, check the bulb and if you find it burnt out from inside then a simple replacement of the bulb will fix this issue. Type of bulb installed depends on the type and style of the vehicle.
- A blown Fuse may be a good reason to cause this failure. Electrical system that is responsible for the functioning of headlights has fuses and when any of them are blown out, it will prevent the headlights from working. You can check for a blown fuse by simply switching between high and low beams.
- Usually only one side of the headlight fails but if you find it at both sides then checking a relay is not a bad idea. A bad relay is a part of the electrical system and may not get enough power to illuminate the headlights. In this case, the relay needs to be replaced.
- A bulb socket can become dirty or contaminated by disconnecting the contact between the electrical system and socket. The most common symptom would be one headlight not working.
- A headlight switch enables you to turn on and control the headlights. If it is not working properly it means you cannot turn the headlights on the car and it is required that you replace the headlight switch immediately to avoid any dangerous driving conditions.
- Sometimes, if moisture sits in the headlight it can hamper the performance of the bulb. The fog created by the moisture can stop proper emission of light from the bulb. Remove moisture if you could find any.
Can I fix this error at home?
Usually this problem resolves with the replacement of DRLs or entire headlight assembly / unit but if you want to save your dollars and don’t want to purchase a new component, you can try a hack at home to bypass this error. All you will need is a jumper wire which you can make yourself if you don’t have one already.
Then you need to find and remove the main plug that goes to the headlight and shorten its two pins. Grab black wire and yellow wire which is a canbus and shorten them by making a little u clip of jumper wire. By doing this we just bypass the resistance of those LED DRLs and once these pins are shortened and the jumper wire is plugged in, the computer will not be able to detect any problem with the system and the issue will be resolved.
After doing this, you can turn on the headlights, and check if a message appears. Hopefully you won’t find it there anymore. However, if this trick doesn’t work for you and your vehicle then you should go for the replacement option.
In most of the replacement cases, it is DRLs or LED bulbs which need replacement that’s again not much difficult and you could try at home if you are confident with your automotive knowledge and skills or else you can take your vehicle to the dealer. But in case of a headlight system failure you might need to replace the entire headlight unit. It is better that you contact an expert mechanic to correctly diagnose the problem for you. You can find a store such as xenons4u where you can purchase the replacement parts as well as installation and replacement services at a reasonable price.
