I noticed this weekend that my bright light indicator was on my control indicator panel, but it seemed extremely dim.

My control switch was in the Lo Beam position.

Upon arriving home, I noticed my headlight was not on at all.

I toggled to Hi Beam mode, and there was no change - no headlight, and the hi beam indicator remained on, but dim.

I'm going to rip the fairing apart some time this week and take a look. Could this just be a burnt out headlight? I'm assuming once the bulb goes, both the hi and low beams are shot. Does anyone have any other suggestions on what to look for, if its not just a burnt out light.

The bike is an 08 with 16k - not sure the headlight life span should be that short. I'm wondering if I have a grounding issue.

 

Nope, not true.
Unless both beams blew simultaneously.

As for ideas, unless the connector somehow come off, I have no clue.

 

Check your headlight bulb. Sometimes when they burn out on low beam the filament will touch the high beam filament and cause a feed back thru the circuit and make wierd things happen. Dont over think this, most likely is something simple.

 

Just popped open the fairing, and found that the wire leads to the bulb are good, and that all the filaments are intact.

The issue is with the No. 3 wire (GND) on the bulb connection harness. For some reason it looks like the plastic around the connector is melted - really strange since its the ground wire. If I push and hold the connector in, the light stays on. As soon as I remount the fairing, the connection comes loose. I'm going to rig something to bypass to a the ground wire, until I can get the connector piece.

However, what has me slightly more concerned is what caused this issue.

 

I would normally suggest having the dealer make repairs in warranty, but they'll likely replace it with another stock connector if that's all that's bad. Since the cost is low I would probably buy a heavy-duty connector at an auto-parts store like Auto Zone and do it myself. These connectors are made for people who use high-powered bulbs that work at a higher-than-normal temperatures and amperage. Unless you're running a non-stock 135w high-beam bulb or similar you shouldn't be having connectors melt like that, so I can only guess that the connector is defective. I've run 80-90w low- and 100w high-beam bulbs for the past 12 years without issues of any kind, so if you're running a stock bulb you can't be over-amping the circuit, and least not theoretically. It should be good for at least 9A.

I wonder if it's possible for the handlebar switch to be bad causing both high- and low-beams to work at the same time. That would put output up to about 10A, and that may be too much for the ground wire. I'm just guessing here, as your problem seems very strange to me. Please keep us posted on your progress, as I'm very curious.

 

Unfortunately I'm out of warranty, so I'll be doing this fix myself. I do have a garage door opener connected to the hi beam that activates when I flip the switch twice. All appears to be ok with those wires, and I doubt that would cause the issue, but you never know.

 

The bulb is bad. If you want to replace the connector, that'll cost another $5.

 

check the wires that plug into the bulb, thus was happing on my roadglide and when i went to replace the bulb i found that the pig tail was worn through. and was shorting out... new one cost 42 bucks and i wraped a mile if electrial tape around it .just took the fairing off after a year. too install hid's and all was fine with my fix.

 

That's odd since you'd think a short would've blown the 15A fuse.

Hmmm. I wonder about that garage-door opener, but you wouldn't think in normal operation the amp draw would be enough to cause the connector to melt. Even if so you'd think it would blow a fuse if it got to that point.

 

Well...guess what? Its been about 2.5 months since I fixed the headlight connector the last time, and the damn thing has done it again. I saw that my hi-beam light was on the dash, and my headlight was INOP.

So this time, I'm taking iClick's advice. I went to my Harley shop and they had a $50 bulb with a heavy duty connector in the same package. I just got done splicing the wires in, and soldering them nice and tight. We should be good to go again. This time, I'm also going to trace back the entire headlight harness, and make sure the ground wire is secure.

Does anyone know where the ground wire for the headlight bulb connects to the chassis?