Daddybob

I just now found this thread. 98 Forester, left side went dim. Replaced connector, nuthin' changed. Swapped relays, left side worked, right side went dim. Just now got a new relay, everything is fine. Connector was degraded somewhat, probably brought the relay to its end. There is definitely backfeed between the right and left.

A lot of life got in the way but it's finally done. Both highbeam ground wires have had an extra ground wire soldered to them, then both of those are grounded back to the new SEALED battery. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Could be from the combination of overheating and exploding last year when that happened to both highbeams at once, while we were having extended sopping wet weather, months of it. Whatever it was, it sure did a number on them. Both lenses have the same internal fogging directly in front of the bulbs.

Would you elaborate a bit more? By "drop in" LED bulbs, do you mean you didn't have to do any installation of accessories like those big ballast resistors?

Good idea! I forgot that I've got that very problem right now on my 98 Forester, left side. I bought a new set of pigtails and haven't gotten around to installing them yet. Thanks for reminding me.

Well we do know they've made some mistakes over the years and tried to cat-cover them instead of coming clean. Crappy head gaskets being the most well known one. (I just finished putting MLS gaskets on my '98 Forester.) Oh well, we are dealing with human beings aren't we. Yes, I did polish the outside of the lenses and was able to determine that the insides were fogged. I haven't looked very hard but I'm guessing the lenses can't be separated to clean the insides. On other vehicles I have cleaned lenses and clear coated them. I thought I might do that to this one until I saw what the insides looked like.

Second owner, may not qualify for extended warranty; closest dealer is an hour drive one way; owner's life is a full plate for next 3 months (so is mine). DRLs on this car are separate bulbs inside high beam reflector, thank goodness. The lenses are fogged on the inside, gonna need replacement before next fall. That will give me time to learn more about possibly replacing them with LEDs, along with any pattern changes. Definitely interested in LEDs if not too complicated or costly just because of lowered current draw. Thanks!

Update. My parts guy told me to put dielectric grease on on the bulb contacts. He says it's fixing other premature burnout problems in some other vehicles here.

1. Although I soldered the extra ground wires into the main ground wires, I put an aluminum eye crimp fitting on the other end and zip-screwed it to the painted inner wheel well. Those aluminum crimp fittings on copper wire will corrode and fail here quickly in this humidity. I need to use a soldered copper eye and ground it to the battery negative clamp. 6. Yup, not a hobbyist, totally old guy pragmatist. Your reasoning sounds good; now I wonder if Long Life bulbs last longer from being cooler?

Okay here I am again. I'm starting to figure this out. 1. Grounding is most likely the issue. Although extra work has been done in this regard, I have seen where I can do better and will do so as early as possible. 2. Only the right bright was out this time and it was not exploded. Fortunately that's the easiest headlight to replace on the vehicle and it's been done for now because I had to get this thing working ASAP, because I've got to drive her a long distance to have surgery. BTW I took care not to touch the bulb. 3. It never had anything to do with the multifunction switch on the steering column. 4. Battery has been cleaned. Fumes seeping out the caps are the most likely cause of the excessive corrosion. Probably the only cure is a better battery because this is an El Cheapo. Until then it's just going to be a matter of keeping the terminals clean. 5. LEDs and HIDs are not the answer. 6. I have been using Sylvania basic bulbs. This one is a 9005. Does anyone have opinions about a better bulb?

https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/172456-2012-legacy-repeat-headlamp-failure-and-blowout/

Lenses appear dry but this can be a terribly wet/humid place. This is probably complicating the problem including complicating the grounding problems. Ok, charging system, glad you reminded me. The positive post on the battery on this car keeps getting a tremendous build up of corrosion and it needs to be cleaned right now. Since this is not a common problem with my other vehicles, I figure something has to be going on with the charging system although it seems to be fine. There are no other symptoms of a charging problem, but I know how dreadfully sneaky modern alternators can be with built-in voltage regulator circuitry. No aftermarket electronic gear and no jump starting. This car isn't actually mine, it belongs to a woman friend. She lives several miles away. She has to drive it for work everyday. So I don't get all the time I need to check things over on it.

@idosubaru 1. No. 2. No. 3. Outlier I think. But I just can't find that info again. 4. Agreed, but again I think I've got an outlier. Never seen anything like this, and I'm an old guy who ran a business with lots of trucks, and I put four kids through driving. Seen a lot of crazy stuff in vehicles. Never seen exploding headlamps, and sure never seen two at once. 5. I'll look him up. Thanks.

BTW, in case I failed to mention it, both high beams have got extra grounding wires on them already. A Subaru mechanic did one of them and I did the other one.

I think you're probably right. Like I said, I was incredulous myself when I read that claim. Somebody got the cause wrong. The problem still remains though that these cars can blow both highbeam bulbs at once and when it does they actually shatter. It can actually blow the rear bulbs at the same time. This model still used filament bulbs in the rear. Now here's why I keep asking about LEDs but I haven't gotten a straight answer yet... LEDs draw much less current. I've rewired trailers with them that were giving grounding problems and blowing fuses in the towing vehicle. Those problems disappeared because of greatly reduced current draw. Will the same effect apply to LED headlamps? Most LED users are only interested in appearance and don't seem to really understand this concept. As long as I get decent usable light at night then that's all I care about, along with the fact that I'm trying to stop changing bulbs so often.

Ha. I just now found this thread again. I never did finish this thread. That's because the final answer was so shocking that I forgot about this thread. The bright lights wouldn't come on because the bulbs were completely shattered. They only lights working inside of the bright lenses were the daytime running lights. The problem is coming up again. See my new thread... 2012 Legacy repeat headlamp failure and blowout

Yep, 9005. Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

That did happen many months ago. Thank goodness it wasn't at night. Both bulbs actually crumbled. I honestly don't know if it happened while it was moving, but it sure happened. I was reading about that very thing and thought Naaahhh... and then found them like that. I can't find that information again. But I know that they said the problem was series wiring and the only real cure was to convert to parallel. This supposedly was only done on Legacies for about 3 or 4 years in the early 2010s. I find it incredulous myself.

I'm trying to find out if there is a simple way to stop this repeat failure of headlamps. I believe this is called a 5th generation Legacy. I ran across some information a couple of years ago that said that these cars will actually cause the headlamps to explode, both at the same time, and that has happened to this car. At the time it was suggested that the problem was caused by the wiring being in series and that there was a recall and or a kit from Subaru to change the headlamp wiring to parallel. If anyone knows anything about that please point me in the right direction because I can't find it again. Everybody already knows these lamps are difficult to replace. Someone has suggested that I need to be using gloves on the lamps. Okay I failed to do that before but I won't fail to do it again. Can anyone tell me if changing over to a LED bulb will help this problem? I'm not looking for brighter lights. I don't care if the wiring isn't good enough to do everything that an LED bulb is supposedly capable of. I don't care about anything except not changing these confounded bulbs all the time. As long as the brightness will be as good as an oem bulb then that is fine by me.

THANKS FOR THAT, THIRTEEN YEARS LATER!

No haven't thought about both bulbs going out at one time, and besides they do both come on sometimes, but no predictability about that. I dread messing with that stalk. Oh well it goes in for a repair soon that I am unable to do, so maybe then.

Okay you're right about that, and I wrote it up wrong because I drive three different vehicles that seem to do three different things and I haven't driven this one in a while. Nevertheless the problem is the same. I push the stalk forwards and the high beams fail to come on. The high-beam indicator comes on but the high beams themselves do not come on. I should add that when I pull the switch backwards to blink the high beams, most of the time that seems to work. But not always.

I tried searching first... High beams won't stay on when I push the stalk (edited for correction). They will flash on then go back to low. After many tries they may decide to stay on high or they may not. Then if I switch back to low beam, I have to go through the whole rigmarole again to get high beams. Maybe. There doesn't appear to be a high beam relay. There is a Daytime Running Light relay that maybe has this function. Anybody know anything? ETA: Now the high beams don't come on at all.

I just joined looking for other information but saw this. My 2012 Legacy with OEM sound system ate a CD and wouldn't give it back. 6 months later I had to replace the battery. When I pulled the old battery out the player spit the CD out. Of course what happened next was that it had to be driven nearly a hundred miles for everything to reset. Cruise wouldn't work and all kinds of Lights lit up on the dash. If that happens whatever you do don't disconnect the battery again. Just keep driving. I have a 1998 Forester with an aftermarket system in it. I think there's been a CD stuck in there for six and a half years but I can't prove it. The CD just went missing. Changing the battery had no effect.