Citroen Xsara - no sidelight, dipped/full beam fine

Alexis27 · Unread post by **Alexis27** » 10 Mar 2009, 00:02

One of the headlights on my 98 Xsara was stuck on sidelight, so I bought a new pair of bulbs.

Both work fine on dipped and full beam, but bizarrely one of them doesn't work on sidelight - it is completely off.

I've tried swapping the bulbs, but the right light still only works on dipped/full.

Twiddling the wires doesn't have any effect.

Seems an odd one - I've only come across lights that work on side and not full before, but this is the opposite.

Any ideas? The car takes H4 single bulbs.

Unread post by **myglaren** » 10 Mar 2009, 06:33

Welcome to the forums Alexis27.

Surely the H4 is dipped/main beam and the sidelight a separate bulb altogether? Or if the lights are like mine dipped/fog and separate main beam and sidelight bulbs.

I have seen instances of malfunction where the bulbs have been incorrectly inserted into the bayonet fitting, particularly some types of rear lamp/brake/rear foglamp bulbs.

Yours looks to me as though it may be a bad earth somewhere though, check the grounding points for loose connections, broken wires and corrosion.

Alexis27 · Unread post by **Alexis27** » 10 Mar 2009, 09:37

Hi!

I think the facelifted Xsara has two separate bulbs, but the pre 2000 ones have a single H4 bulb for dipped/full and dimmed.

I'll have a check around again to see if anything's amiss. At least the full lights work - I can live without them dimming.