Hight beams stuck on

I’ve got a 2013 tacoma and when I turn my high beams off my driver side headlight stays on high. If I give it a good smack it turns back to low but will do the same thing no matter how many times I cycle through high and low. I do have aftermarket headlights and I’m not sure if that’s the cause or if there’s something else causing the issue. Anyone else have this issue or know a fix?

 

Check relays or ballast's

 

That is odd.
Very odd since it is ONLY one side doing it.

Does the High Beam indicator stay on too. (On the dash)

The Dimmer relay powers BOTH sides.
If it were the dimmer relay, I’d expect BOTH sides to to remain on high.

Therefore, I’d be looking at headlight issue.

If you want to confirm it, next time it does it.
Pull the Headlight Hi LH fuse. It it stays on, you have a wiring issue.
If it goes off, well, you have a different issue.
But let’s see where we get by doing the test above first.

And if you are wondering why you can’t just check the Hi fuse for power.
It’s becoming what ever is powering Hi side, is Likely back feeding to the fuse.

 

What is your aftermarket headlight setup? As mentioned the relays that control high/low in the OEM circuit control it for both sides, meaning if one side is working properly and the other isn't it sounds like an issue with your aftermarket setup and not anything from the factory.

 

You've already received some good advice here from some of our senior members and I'll add my 2 cents. First, if you can smack the headlight and get it to go back to the low beam, I'd say the problem is within the (aftermarket) headlight. Second, if you do a little snooping around here, you'll find that many of us who have been there and done that have a pretty dim view (no pun intended) of aftermarket headlights in general. Why? Because they have so many problems and OEM head lights are superior in terms of output, longevity and overall quality. If you really want to solve your current (and other) problems, find a set of true OEM headlights and never look back.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions I’ll have some time to dig into it tomorrow and will see if I can fix it. I’m hoping I don’t have to go back to OEM as I love the look of these but if that’s the case I’ll just have to bite the bullet and do it.

 

The decision that only you can make is what's more important, looks or performance?

 

Honestly for me I feel like these are brighter than the OEM ones aswell. My old ones were getting foggy and even when I cleaned them they were still dim my dads 08 had the same issue so I assumed it was the housing. But I thought about it some more and the aftermarket ones replaced the oem bulb with a different size so I’m almost wondering if there’s an issue with the bulb but now both sides are doing it so I guess I’ll find out when I look into it more. Wont be the end of the world to get rid of them.

 

The 2nd gen tacoma oem headlamps are a very, very good lamp. There's an extremely comprehensive bulb testing thread at the top of the 2nd gen subforum. You'd be hard pressed to do better than the 2nd gen lamps with a high performance bulb and relay harness until you step up to something along the lines of a D2S based hid retrofit, like an rx350 projector... and a relay harness and excellent set of bulbs is significantly cheaper than any retrofit.

But good lamps don't last forever. At ~10 years old, even if the lenses have been polished and re-cleared with something like 2k clearcoat, the reflectors themselves are likely going to begin to show their age.

You haven't posted pictures, so we're left to assume, but are your aftermarket lamps projector based? From the sounds of it, if they are, then it is likely the solenoid for the high beam shutter crapping out. If its an aftermarket lamp that is reflector based and uses the stock size H4/9003 bulb, it could be that the highbeam filament has broken off at one end and is making intermittent contact with the lowbeam filament, energizing it, and being seperated again with a good hsrd smack. Can you post pics of your headlamps as they are now?

 

Yeah no problem I don’t know why I didn’t post a picture to begin with lol. I put on with the headlight on and one off these photos were taken when I installed them so prior to the issue.

 

I think Toy_Runner is right with the solenoid because of how the headlights are acting. Here is a picture of the bulb as of right now. I took a couple videos but can’t upload them to the thread. It seems to want to go the actual bulb brightness changes. But seems to get hung up on something and won’t lower back down. The passenger side is starting to do it as well.

 

If they're a low/hi projector, can you try to use a separate 12v source or a drill battery or something right at the headlamp wherever the highbeam shutter trigger feed is located to see if the issue is with the headlamp itself or perhaps some sort of issue with the switching side of the highbeam circuit.

 

Yeah I had another high low bulb at home I put in and tried and the issue is still there. It’s almost like there’s a shutter in the housing that opens and closes with my high low beams I pulled the dimmer relay and my headlights just shut off. I didn’t see any bad fuses though so I’m not sure what else to check before just going back to OEM ones.

 

"Bi-"beam projectors do use a shutter, usually moved by a solenoid, to move the shutter out of the way for high beam. So the high beam isn't from a separate filament, but there should be another wire coming out of the lamp for the solenoid.

 

There is so the weird thing is I pulled the headlight out and flipped my highs on and off the shutter moved in and out of the way no problem I put the bulbs back in and the problem started again. I have absolutely no clue what to do at this point besides take the loss and buy OEM.

 

This is the weirdest thing I pull the headlight out of the truck with the bulb in it the shutters work no problem on high it’s open on low it’s closed. But then I put the housing back into the truck and the problem is back all of a sudden. Almost seems like some sort of wiring issue at this point because they shouldn’t work out of the vehicle but not work in the vehicle makes no sense.

 

Could it be the spring detent on the inside of the stalk that regulates the hi/lo actuator? Just trying to help narrow it down.

 

I actually think I fixed it I pulled the headlight housing out and the bulb and saw some scraping on the shutter I shook it around to see if anything fell out and it threw some dust around so I took a vacuum to it to try to get as much out and kind of pushed the shutter out with my finger. As of right now it works like a charm but I’m not sure how long this will work. Going to see how long this works and go from there. Most likely wind up with OEM again.