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Low/high beams switched?

3K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  90Mark7 
#1 ·
I have a 2002 Mercury Sable GS. I swapped both headlight bulbs since one of them burnt out. I noticed that it seems like my low beams are now my high beams and vice versa. I didn't think swapping bulbs would make this happen? The screws to adjust the angle of the beams are pretty stripped down.

1) How can I adjust the beams if the screws are stripped? Probably a vice grip or something?
2) How can I get the low beams and high beams back to normal?

I don't have any pictures, but against a dark wall, the "low beams" are angled higher and once I toggle them to "high beams", the beam pattern drops a few inches. I thought it was the other way around? Please advise me on a fix, thank you.
 
#2 ·
If you bought the correct headlight bulbs, there is no way changing the bulbs can switch lo and hi beams as the bulb connector only fits one way. Some different part # bulbs have different pinouts, so if you bought the wrong bulbs it is possible the lo/hi beams could be switched. I THINK your car uses 9007 bulbs, but dont remember for sure as I havent owned a Gen 4.0 in several years. .
 
#3 ·
Yep I just double checked on the owner's manual: 9007 bulbs. I will check the bulbs themselves again and see what the part number is. They're currently halogen 6000K color-temp bulbs that I bought from eBay. I do remember that I had a little bit of a tough time installing them but it was because it was cold outside. I didn't replace the wiring at all, and the assemblies themselves are about 1.5 years old.
 
#4 ·
I'm back. So I checked and the part number does indeed say 9007 on the bulbs. I didn't even mess with the harnesses, just only replaced the bulbs. Can anyone help me further on what I should do?
 
#6 ·
Your 6000k eBay bulbs seem to be faulty.
 
#7 ·
I will look into replacing the bulbs back with the old ones and see how that works out (one of the old ones had the low beam filament burnt-out, but the high beam filament still worked). In the mean time, I decided to give a shot with GTR Ultra 2 LED headlight bulbs from HeadlightRevolution.com and I'll update this thread when they come in.
 
#9 ·
Yeah...the bulbs are pricey, I must admit. The Sable is my back-up car/winter beater, but I'd like to have really good headlights for them. Fortunately they seem to have a good return policy in case I'm not satisfied with them.

Otherwise I can just perhaps throw in some good Silverstars or something. What is everyone's recommendations for 9007 headlight bulbs?
 
#10 ·
FWIW, I installed an aftermarket headlamp wiring harness about eight years ago, When I next changed the 9004 bulbs for the 9007s recommended, my low beams didn't work at all and my high beams worked as low beams.

Finally had to check the pin-outs on the bulbs and the wiring to the new sockets. Sure enough, they were quite different. After re-arranging the leads to the lamp sockets I had them working correctly. Much better illumination, all things considered.

Hope this may help a bit.
 
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