Why doesn't driver's side low beam headlight or high beam on 1997 Honda Accord EX work What could be the problem Both bulbs are brand new. Low Beam is dim and High beam doesn't work.?

Answer 1

You need a new headlamp socket and a new fuse for the headlight.

Here's what happened: The electrical connection between your headlamp socket and bulb was poor, causing heating that damaged the socket. You should find that one of the lamp sockets on the bad side is black and melted inside. Eventually, the melting caused the conductors to start to touch, which increased the current until the fuse melted. However, you will find that the fuse is mouted vertically, and that when the fuse wire let go, it drooped down and made a poor contact across the circuit. When the light socket cooled down, the shrinking plastic pulled the lamp socket terminals apart, removing the short. The amount of fuse contact is sufficient to run the low beams dimly (as you observed), but (not sure why this happens with the weak fuse connection) no current flows for the higher current requirements of the high beam.

I found this problem on my 1997 Prelude, but the symptoms are identical to what you describe.