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drivers side headlight flickering..dont know what to do??

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Old Sep 3, 2005
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drivers side headlight flickering..dont know what to do??

I ahve a 2001 civic EX and I just took this long road trip and during the trip I found out my drivers side headlight was flickering on and off when i would hit a bump or anything like that. My civic is on coil overs so that may have something to do with the hard bumping, but i'm stumped. I will turn the headlights on sometimes and they work just fine and other days if I turn them on the drivers side one will not be on and if I just tap the headlight it pops back on. Any suggestions??
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Old Sep 3, 2005
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either you have a loose connection at the headlight, or you need a new headlight bulb. check to make sure the connection is secure, if it is, then pull out the bulb and physically look at it. if it looks ok, switch the headlights from side to side and see if the problem jumps to the otherside. if it does, then the bulb is bad, replace it.
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Old Sep 3, 2005
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The next time it is out, open the hood and lightly touch and slightly move the wiring/plug for that bulb to see if it flickers or starts working. You may be able to clean up the connector and the bulbs pins. Possible failing bulb.
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Old Sep 4, 2005
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cool i'll check both of those ideas out. I also notice the little bulb next to the blinker is out so it may be bad bulbs. I'll post again when i find out about those. thanks
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Old Sep 4, 2005
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I say bad connectors!!
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Old Sep 7, 2005
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I have a 2004 ex and have that same problem! Now my drivers side headlight doesnt work at all! It got really bad over like a month. It was so bad I would have to pop the hood and jiggle the light to get it to work every night. I took it into the dealership and they said my "aftermarket" headlight bulbs fried the connector! They wanted $300 to fix it. I just searched online for the connector and am currently waiting in the mail for it, Im just gonna fix it myself. I wish you luck buddy. Trust me I know how bad it sucks.
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Old Sep 7, 2005
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there is a RECALL for a faulty combo switch that makes the headlights fail.
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Old Sep 8, 2005
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on the note of the recall..how long ago was recall done?

italiancivic77 - I just pulled the headlight today and found that the previous owner used some sort of super glue deal to put the headlight bulbs back into place...so i sat and tried to fix that. Also i was missing one bolt holding the headlight in place. But looking at my bulbs..one of the bulbs has a sort of defect..I wish i knew the terminology for it, but its a tiny metal peice inside the bulb towards the top thats touching one of those tiny springs. Also another bulb was blown, so I will have to replace that aswell.

I'll have to find out about the recall though.
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Old Sep 8, 2005
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Originally Posted by yock
on the note of the recall..how long ago was recall done?

italiancivic77 - I just pulled the headlight today and found that the previous owner used some sort of super glue deal to put the headlight bulbs back into place...so i sat and tried to fix that. Also i was missing one bolt holding the headlight in place. But looking at my bulbs..one of the bulbs has a sort of defect..I wish i knew the terminology for it, but its a tiny metal peice inside the bulb towards the top thats touching one of those tiny springs. Also another bulb was blown, so I will have to replace that aswell.

I'll have to find out about the recall though.
The bulb shave 2 filiments in them, one for the low beam and one for the high beam. Possibly one of the filiments is broken but occasionall it archs accross and makes contact to cause the light to flicker. I would go ahead and replace the bulb and see if that fixes the problem. Dont know about the super glue though, was it used to hold the bulb to the connecter?
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Old Sep 8, 2005
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Originally Posted by streetglower
The bulb shave 2 filiments in them, one for the low beam and one for the high beam. Possibly one of the filiments is broken but occasionall it archs accross and makes contact to cause the light to flicker. I would go ahead and replace the bulb and see if that fixes the problem. Dont know about the super glue though, was it used to hold the bulb to the connecter?
sorry i wasnt specific. the bulb wasnt held in place by glue, but the connecter was held to the headlight casing itself with the glue. It was done on the turn signal bulb as well. The turn signal actually had some glue on it, but its still working fine. It was weird, cause all I did was shave off the glue and the connecters fit into their sockets just fine. Someone probably didnt get the idea of how to fit those in. I was thinking of replacing all 3 bulbs just to be safe.
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