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  #1  
Old 12-17-2016, 10:44 PM
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Lightbulb Fighting with my old lady; only one headlight works

I've been Fighting with my old lady, 84 300SD, for a few days now and she keeps on winning.

The passenger side headlight just won't turn on. I swapped out fuse number 6 and verified that I have voltage on both sides of the terminal. I cleaned the contacts for the headlight assembly and the connection to the headlight bulb itself. I tested the original bulb and a spare I had floating around with a car battery and they both light up when juice is applied to the left and right metal prongs of the bulb. I have 12 volts coming out of headlamp socket, see picture, at the point labelled "A" when the low beams are turned on.

What should I be seeing at A, B, and C when low beams / high beams are on?

I'm really scratching my head on this one.

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Fighting with my old lady; only one headlight works-capture.png  
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1977 Red 240D ( Squished by a 18 Wheeler )
1976 Black 240D ( Sold )
1991 White 420SEL ( Sold )
1987 Black 560SEL ( Sold )
1983 White 300SD ( Sold )
1984 Blue 300SD ( Sold )
2014 Red Chevy Cruze Diesel ( New Hotness )
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  #2  
Old 12-18-2016, 12:17 AM
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Check the ground on your headlight (brown wire).
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  #3  
Old 12-18-2016, 01:20 AM
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X2 sounds like a bad ground
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2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
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1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
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  #4  
Old 12-18-2016, 01:23 AM
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Pulled the ground but my fingers were a little to chilly to do much more. Whoever had been in there before installed a bolt with a 9/32nds head so my second 7mm wouldn't fit..
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1977 Red 240D ( Squished by a 18 Wheeler )
1976 Black 240D ( Sold )
1991 White 420SEL ( Sold )
1987 Black 560SEL ( Sold )
1983 White 300SD ( Sold )
1984 Blue 300SD ( Sold )
2014 Red Chevy Cruze Diesel ( New Hotness )
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  #5  
Old 12-18-2016, 03:26 AM
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Cleaned up the bolt, nut, metal surface, and connector but still no passenger headlight on low or high.
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1977 Red 240D ( Squished by a 18 Wheeler )
1976 Black 240D ( Sold )
1991 White 420SEL ( Sold )
1987 Black 560SEL ( Sold )
1983 White 300SD ( Sold )
1984 Blue 300SD ( Sold )
2014 Red Chevy Cruze Diesel ( New Hotness )
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  #6  
Old 12-18-2016, 08:43 AM
Shadetree
 
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It's most likely in the plug. Pin 2 in that plug is the ground. Try checking the power in pins 3 and 4 using pin 2 as the ground instead of grounding past that plug to the body.
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  #7  
Old 12-18-2016, 11:19 AM
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Let's start with the correct diagram.

In my area, people have an unsociable habit of installing 90W low beams, because the roads are very dark. It blinds everyone else, but they can see. Until the sockets fail. What happens is that the plastic sockets start to melt, covering the terminals with a thin insulating coating. The solution is to replace them with ceramic sockets. These are available online or at your local parts store. To test this, cobble up a couple of leads, plug them into the socket, and test with your multimeter.
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  #8  
Old 12-18-2016, 05:30 PM
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For others, since you already tried to no avail. The L headlamp in my 1985 300D wasn't working. The bulb showed resistance, but I tried another bulb just in case. No light. I then changed the fuse from a tin to gold one and viola, worked. I already knew that trick from fixing the sun-roof, power windows, etc. Got rid of all the tin fuses w/ better gold-ceramic ones (ebay). Before that, I would sand the tin ones and reinstall w/ silicone grease. Did the cars ship w/ the tin fuses?
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  #9  
Old 12-20-2016, 02:42 PM
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Yes, the Tin one`s were shipped from the factory in Germany when the cars were built.


Actually they are Aluminum.
.


.
.
.
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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works
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  #10  
Old 12-21-2016, 04:02 PM
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Aluminum is bad, so what was M-B thinking? That caused many house fires when they tried that for home wiring in the 1960's. Many connector pins are brass, coated w/ tin-lead alloys, similar to solder, though Europe eliminated lead (causes issues). They also solder-coat copper circuit board traces so they don't corrode to green, and why I assumed tin. If the gold-colored fuses are truly gold-plated that is the best, and what premium electrical connectors use.
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  #11  
Old 12-23-2016, 09:11 PM
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Try.....

I know very little about mechanic stuff, but someone told me to replace my fuses even though they looked fine. He said get rid of the old pitted aluminum ones and get the copper ones. You can replace 'em all for maybe $15. He said even though the old ones LOOK fine, they might not BE fine, so replace them.

Good luck.
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  #12  
Old 12-23-2016, 09:26 PM
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Well, I solved my problem. It turns out the problem all along was a dim bulb. The dim bulb being me. My spare bulb had the same low beam burned out as on my bad headlight. A new headlight solved my problem.

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1977 Red 240D ( Squished by a 18 Wheeler )
1976 Black 240D ( Sold )
1991 White 420SEL ( Sold )
1987 Black 560SEL ( Sold )
1983 White 300SD ( Sold )
1984 Blue 300SD ( Sold )
2014 Red Chevy Cruze Diesel ( New Hotness )
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