Hi Everyone!

I know this is a lot but I can't find answers to this anywhere and I have no money to fix this!! I also replaced the battery today and it didn't resolve any of this.

I have a 2004 Stratus 4 Door 2.4 liter and one of my headlights is VERY dim. The other one is just fine. I replaced a bulb on it and it still has the same amount of brightness. I looked this issue up and I keep finding reports of a "ground wire" issue on different cars but I have no idea how to fix this on my car. I took a look behind the driver's side headlight assembly and I see a bunch of wires right behind it and two bolts that clamp down directly on to the metal. These look exactly like ground wires to me but I'm not sure if they are for the headlights or not. If they are, the bolts look rusted but I'm not sure how the quality of these underneath the bolts are. I didn't want to remove them not knowing what they are.

If I turn on the brights, they turn on and off properly on the one side that works properly but the dashlight for brights never turns off, even when I turn them off and they actually go out on the headlamp (I'm not sure if this is related.)

Next, the interior lights in the car fade very dim sometimes. My windshield wipers can be very slow and not even turn to their original positions sometimes. I'm not sure if this is related to the ground issue with the headlights but I thought I'd mention it.

Last, the AC/Heat barely blows air. If I turn it on "4", I can feel a slight amount of air come out and when I turn it off it stops so I assume it's turning on, just barely working. It seems like so many things just aren't receiving enough power. Strange enough, the heat works when it's cold out but the second it gets hot, the blower barely works.

I appreciate anyone that can help. Thank you guys so much!

 

What is the condition of the battery cables and connections?

 

Is there a way to check the quality of these without taking the tire off? I just had the battery replaced yesterday and no one said anything about poor battery connections or cables.

 

yes you can, to check terminals turn the wheel all the way to right then take off access cover if your vehicle has one, if not you have to take fender liner off. the battery ground should be on wheel well just follow cable upwards, I would take the headlight out and follow wiring to ground to be sure which one is ground (don't have my stratus anymore to tell u where it is), lights are held in by 2 screws after you take screws out you might have to push bumper cover down a little bit to get light out also check terminals in socket for corrosion ,the fan sounds like a bad blower motor resistor speeds 1 thru 3 go thru resistor . speed #4 is straight wired

 

I tested it for a long longer and it seems like that air that was coming out of the vents was imaginary. I don't feel anything. 1-4 on the blower has no effect at all. If the blower is bad, is it a hard replace? I can't find ANY manuals on this car or anything. My old cars have been super easy to find info on but this car just has no support at all. I BELIEVE I saw the blower under the glove box and it looks easy to take out but I'm not even sure that's where it is. I'm checking the cables tomorrow on the battery and I'm also cleaning up the ground wires to see if that helps the headlights.

 

Also check fuses. No car these days is like the old days. Haynes and chiltons both have manuals for your car.

 

My fuses look fine but the battery connector to the fuse box does look corroded. Could it cause ALL of these issues? The slow windowshield wipers that don't work unless on the highest setting and the one dim headlight? I feel like both headlights would be dim if this was the case but I really have no idea

 

if you need a manual alldatadiy.com has an excellent online manual little more expensive extremely detailed everything you need, possibly the cable could cause your problem .If you have a voltmeter check the voltage at light socket with a frame ground then check it with socket ground to see if same ,another possibility could be the switch for wipers and lights ,the blower is fairly easy to replace its behind glove box I would check voltage at connector before replacing motor

 

Thanks so much. I pulled down the wires that go into the blower resistor and they all work so it looks like the resistor went bad. I ordered a replacement.

I cleaned the two grounds directly behind the driver's side headlight until they were bright silver but the headlight is still dim. The wires come directly from that headlight so I'm not sure what other issue it could be. The battery connections look fine and I'm not sure if a bad battery connection could only cause ONE headlight to go dim. Is there anything I should check outside the ground that's directly behind the headlight.

I'll order that manual as well. Do manuals have lists of common issues with cars or do they just show you how to replace certain things?

 

Haynes doesn't have trouble shooting not sure about Chilton's all data has some I usually search online with google or some other search engine . did you check voltage at socket and resistance in ground ,about only things it could be is bad ground or wire, bad socket not making good connection , bad wiring or connection in harness. or possibly the switch