Hi All,

I have a 2004 Mazda 3. The other night the headlights just stopped working. The parking lights still work as do the high beams but the main lights do not. (if you look att he car from the front, there is there lights, the indicator, the main light and the parker (also high beam) it is the middle light that does not work).
I have checked all the fuses and relays, both in the car and under the bonnet. I have taken to it with a multimeter and the voltage and current are fine. I have also checked the switch to make sure it is working as well and all are fine. Oh, the bulbs are fine as well.

Has anyone had this problem and do you know of a fix?

Thanks

 

Are you running HID's or regular halogen bulbs? And how did you check the bulbs?

 

hmmm shorting out would be my only guess either that or you didnt look closely to your bulbs, or could be a loose connection

 

Not likely for it to be a loose connection or bad bulbs for both of the low beams. At least I wouldn't think so.

 

never know, that endded up being my problem the first time mine went out, its because if you take them out say and install them they dont sit right as if they were from the factory so they become looser and eventually give way and come out.

 

That does make pretty good sense. I'm hoping the corrosion on my HID's is causing my flickering. I'm about to clean my stock harness connectors with electronics cleaner, then put some dielectric grease in it to keep the corrosion down and maybe the bulb will quit flickering...

 

We just bought our Mazda 3 a few weeks ago and our having the same problem, along with some others. We are also experiencing dimmed lights on the outside and inside when turning the wheel. The heater, if on a high blast, will go down if the wheel is turned as well. Thankfully, we had bought a 4 year bumper to bumper warranty when we purchased the car as it was used with 55,000 and you just never know and cars these days are rather expensive to get fixed. We took it into the dealership about a week and a half after purchasing it and they reported to us that it was the power steering pump and it would be an overnight fix. On the next day we were due to pick it up and they called back and told us our alternator was testing bad. So another overnight fix. My fiance picked it up the next day and told me that it was basically still doing it and indeed it is. He then called the dealership back and they told him that they checked with somebody, not sure who exactly, and that this car "does" that.
Should we have gotten it checked out by a mechanic before we purchased it? yes we should have and my fiance is now kicking himself in the rear for not. I, on the other hand feel that I will give another chance to them to correct the problem. Now if we get it fixed and experience a slew of more problems then I'll probably be a little peeved. It is a used car and it's been freezing cold here so who knows how long it had been sitting. I love Mazdas and was a Mazda Mx3 owner for around 5 years and never experienced any breakdown or problem in that car the whole time I owned it. I drove it while in college and after and did alot of long distance driving. Just had to replace the brakes and rotars. Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing this? I find it hard to believe this is normal.

 

As far as I understood it Mazda opted for Electric power steering on the Mazda 3. That means the power steering runs off the battery and not the engine. Can't remember what the advantages of this was, I would imagine it improves steering feel. So yeah, it is normal for the Mazda 3 to lose some power to electrical components when turning the steering wheel at stand still. The electric power steering pump is also rather noisy when you're outside the vehicle. Hope this helps, it bugged me to no end when I bought my 04 but I've gotten used to it since.

 

Also, if your battery was low because of a bad alternator, it takes a while to recharge taking short trips so the power steering will still starve the rest of the system.

 

One solution to intermittent or permanent headlight failure can be found on the post by SEVARGMT on 9-29-2010.

It seems to lie in corrosion of the wiring system connectors in the PJB, a specific wire connection junction box located under the passenger side glove compartment box.

It seems possible to repair the corroded pin connector but it is probably best to have the dealer replace the entire PJB to avoid repeats of this problem, as it is a dangerous situation when headlights go out at night, like mine did.

Brilliant problem solving by SEVARGMT and DJS2571. They also developed a convincing theory of what causes this problem: the air conditioning line located above this box creates condensation, which then drips down on the wire connectors and causes them to corrode, causing an electrical fault. They suggest a plastic drip sheet to avoid future corrosion.

Wouldn't it be great if Mazda assigned an engineer to read the forums for problems with their cars and prepare posts with solutions? It is plainly obvious that a problem is very common when you look at the number of "views" listed for certain topics, such the headlights (many thousands of owners have headlight failure problems). Mazda should have issued a bulletin or a recall since the corroding PJB is clearly a safety problem. This looks like a design/engineering flaw. Every electrician and plumber knows to never put moisture sources above electrical boxes. Shame on them.