I even purchased the Owner’s Manual (OM) and Repair Manual (RM) from ebay. My goal is to fix all of the lights in my system, which requires a pretty extensive knowledge of electricity, but hey, I’m a physicist after all, and if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s experimentation; let’s hope I don’t kill the car, but I have a feeling I’m going to discover something even cooler the further I go.
Right now I’ve read the OM and figured since my left light is out completely (not the orange lights but the white lights [sorry I don’t know the terms yet, I’ll update with the correct phrasing]) are only out but not the high beams, it means there is something cutting off the flow of electricity to those lights. Flow works bidirectionally for electronics, since there are only two degrees of freedom (depending on how it’s wired, which I haven’t figured out yet so this is an assumption). This means: something is obstructing the flow TO the lights or FROM the lights. Wiring is the flow TO the lights, fuses are the flow FROM the lights.
Jesus, did I just make this up? Yes I did, but I’ll continue reading and update. The problem is that the flow to these bulbs is blocked (obstruction is the mathematical word). Either it’s a in-direction problem, or an out-direction problem. But if it’s a circuit, we don’t direct it like this… oh boy. Then there could be an obstruction to the loop, which may still flow in one guided direction.
My first hunch was to replace the bulbs, as I assumed I busted them, but they don’t actually look blown (blown lights have brown or something odd residue from burning out), it looks like a disconnection.
My next hunch was to check the fuses, which I haven’t done yet, and I’m not sure how to determine if a fuse is out, blown or mechanically damaged, but I’ll figure that out too.
If changing the fuse doesn’t work, I’ll then have to mechanically remove the battery to check behind the light. Why is it that the side next to the battery is out? Is that a coincidence?
I don’t know which tools I need to repair this car and work under the hood, but I suppose I’ll collect them as more repairs come up.