Hope i'm posting in the right area. I made a rookie mistake and disconnected the battery when replacing my headlights (was being over-cautious). All lights work except for my headlights. Checked fuses, seemed fine. Everything is plugged in. Do I need something reset from mazda? If so, anyway I can do that without going to the dealer? Any help is appreciated.

 

thats not a mistake, you should always disconnect the battery when doing any electical work

 

I think the mistake was that I took off the positive first before the negative. Turns out that was a very bad idea as I finally came across a link that had some information regarding it:
how long to reset ECU - Mazda3Club.com

Maybe I should try disconnecting the negative, then positive... hitting the brake to drain everything, then put on positive, then negative and hope for success? Or would that be a bad idea?

here is a little more info. My highbeams, signals, fog lights all work fine...just the normal headlights that don't. no fuses seem to be busted unless I checked the wrong ones (I did not check all of them...I went off the chart in the manual...i checked the 40a fuses). All other electrical seems to work 'cept for the headlights. My only concern with taking all power away is losing more than just my headlights.

Update: I ended up unplugging the battery completely (properly this time) and hit the brakes a few times. Started it back up and still no headlights. Everything else seems to work still. If no one has any ideas, I'll just be taking this into a mazda dealership and make them find the problem so I can fix it myself.

 

ahhhh yeah thats not good lol nagative always first lol as far as how to reset it im not sure

 

Well, took it to a normal shop and they checked the fuses and said they were all fine. They suggested going to an electrical shop which I'm going to do. Too bad I didn't know more about electric in cars...I bet its not even that hard either.

Unless anyone else has any other suggestions, I'll be paying someone to fix it tomorrow morning.

 

Did you check all of the fuses/relays in both the engine bay fuse box and the one behind the glove compt?

The next thing I would check is that your connections as the lights are solid. Then I would pull out a multimeter and see if you actually have power to the harness.

If you have the OEM halogens did you pull the H7 adapter off the back of the old lamps? If you have the OEM HIDs it could be the ballast that's bad.

 

When changing the bulb did you touch the bulb lens at all? Halogen lenses will blow form the oil in your skin. I purchased Sylvania exta brights and they didnt work. Went to the regular sylvania whites and they worked fine. I've purchased lights many times where one was defective. Also when you remove the adapter check all the posts to make sure they are clean and add some diaectric grease to keep water out and a good contact.

 

Hey everyone, thanks for all your help and I apologize for the long reply. I'm super embarrassed to say it but it turns out i was replacing and testing the wrong bulb the entire time. I kept mixing up the high beam/low beam and yeah.. bleh. all fixed