New member/owner - Headlamp questions, not working

RustyKisashi · Mon Nov 06, 2023 11:52 pm

Hi fellow Kizashi owners! Back in 2007, ordered an SX-4 with all the options and a manual transmission. Great car but it had to go. A couple years later after I bought, I heard about the Kizashi which really looked perfect and then I saw on on FB dealing with "obscure" cars and travelled to the other coast (Pennsylvania of course) to find a 2011 SLS with a 6MT and had a wonderful drive home. When driving at night, the lights were dim and so I did a restore on the cover/lens. When I checked on the operation, only the two inside lights work, the outside (larger ones) don't light. So first question: when the headlights are on, is it the outer ones? Seems obvious, but.... the inner ones work fine and go to high beam when selected. Second question is this: I'll check fuses but given the issues with bulb burnout (yes, looked through the archive) I thought to order a replacement HID system recommended some years ago. When I go to retrofitsource.com, I only see replacements for the inner lights (high beam/DRL) and fog lamps but not the outer lamps. BTW, absolutely love this car. 106K and still so tight. Other than that, it kind of clunks going over broken pavement but not over speed bumps. Is that some kind of known issue? Also the A/C was strong when I bought but is now just barely adequate. I will take it to an A/C shop but any ideas other than a leak? Thanks so much for you all being there. I'm in Central Coastal CA where I've seen ONE in the wild, ever. They are completely unknown where I am. TIA!

Obama_is_hot6 · Tue Nov 07, 2023 12:50 am

RustyKisashi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2023 11:52 pm Hi fellow Kizashi owners! Back in 2007, ordered an SX-4 with all the options and a manual transmission. Great car but it had to go. A couple years later after I bought, I heard about the Kizashi which really looked perfect and then I saw on on FB dealing with "obscure" cars and travelled to the other coast (Pennsylvania of course) to find a 2011 SLS with a 6MT and had a wonderful drive home. When driving at night, the lights were dim and so I did a restore on the cover/lens. When I checked on the operation, only the two inside lights work, the outside (larger ones) don't light. So first question: when the headlights are on, is it the outer ones? Seems obvious, but.... the inner ones work fine and go to high beam when selected. Second question is this: I'll check fuses but given the issues with bulb burnout (yes, looked through the archive) I thought to order a replacement HID system recommended some years ago. When I go to retrofitsource.com, I only see replacements for the inner lights (high beam/DRL) and fog lamps but not the outer lamps. BTW, absolutely love this car. 106K and still so tight. Other than that, it kind of clunks going over broken pavement but not over speed bumps. Is that some kind of known issue? Also the A/C was strong when I bought but is now just barely adequate. I will take it to an A/C shop but any ideas other than a leak? Thanks so much for you all being there. I'm in Central Coastal CA where I've seen ONE in the wild, ever. They are completely unknown where I am. TIA!

yeah so i think when you have your high beams on only one of the 2 bulbs are on, and same for lows only one at a time go on. and in case you didnt know the headlights are h7 and h11 for the lower fog lights. id recomend getting led bulbs as an upgrade they look way better because i agree that the stock bulbs suck. the headlight pic was a repost from KuroNekko.

and for the clunking sound the kizashi had a common issue of the rear shocks rusting and going out so yeah id imagine thats your issue. same with mine

RustyKisashi · Tue Nov 07, 2023 4:38 pm

Thanks much - anyone have a source for HID lamps? retrosource.com no longer has a listing for those outer lamps. Any suggestions for rear shocks?

old tech · Wed Nov 08, 2023 12:46 pm

For the headlights I would use LED for the low beams and I would use the regular H7 bulb for the high beam. It doesn’t seem to be quite so hard on the bulbs for high beam and sometimes the LEDs don’t act well on the half power that they’re given For daytime, running light mode. Low beam is on anytime. The headlights are selected, and the high beam is in addition during the high beam mode. Your clunk over diagonal bums is definitely the sway bar bushing and should be replaced with the OEM portion but if you have to you can get it a 2000 Camry we are pushing and shave it to fit. For the AC I think you’ll have to top off the charge, but it would be good to add the fluorescent dye so that it will become obvious where this very small leak is.

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RustyKisashi · Wed Nov 08, 2023 8:16 pm

Many thanks!

Wed Nov 08, 2023 8:31 pm

Welcome. As another Californian, I can attest that the Kizashi is ultra-rare in this state.

Sounds like both of your low beams are out and given the hassle of replacing them in the Kizashi (pretty much requires the front bumper and headlights to come off for decent access) the prior owner did not bother replacing the bulbs.

I strongly recommend you replace the bulbs with an LED or HID kit. I used to favor HIDs for the low beams (I still use them) but LED kits have significantly improved over the last several years. My high beam/DRLs are LEDs and I overcome the DRL's Pulsed Width Modulation, (which makes the DRL dimmer than high beams for a halogen bulb) with capacitors. Otherwise, the LEDs will not work properly as DRLs due to the inconsistent current to the bulbs. It causes halogens to dim but LEDs to flicker or malfunction thus capacitors are necessary to stabilize the current and make them properly function, but in near full power. I recommend halogens for simplicity for the DRL/High Beam but low beams should be upgraded to LED or HID given halogen bulbs are known to prematurely fail in the Kizashi and are a pain to replace.

If you want info or instructions, search the topic on the forum as I've posted a lot about it, including a how-to write-up.

RustyKisashi · Thu Nov 09, 2023 12:39 am

Thanks to you and this community. We have a 150 mi road trip next week and super happy with this car.

makanaky · Sat Nov 11, 2023 6:58 am

Please load some pictures. Lucky you only over 100 k. I'm in Canada, AB and as soon as I will sell my Santa Cruz I would love to buy manual Kizashi. It will be a challenge because there is not too many of them across Canada. Most are automatic and in not really decent condition.
I'm happy for you and enjoy a ride.

SAEED_KIZZY · Sat Nov 11, 2023 8:03 am

I use cheap Chinese LED for both high and low beams :facepalm:

putting LED in the high beam is illegal in my country but every year upon inspection I changed it to halogen after that I went back to LED and it is so useful.

Sun Nov 12, 2023 8:23 pm

SAEED_KIZZY wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2023 8:03 am I use cheap Chinese LED for both high and low beams putting LED in the high beam is illegal in my country but every year upon inspection I changed it to halogen after that I went back to LED and it is so useful.

Putting any other bulb typpe than what is specified as original equipment is illegal in the United States too by federal law. The kits are sold under the premise of "show" or "offroad" use but of course, consumers use them on the road.