I bought a 2007 saturn ion used about 3 years ago, and I didn't realize at the time, but it had a lot of after market work put into it. Luckily, everything worked fine until about a year ago, when the headlights started being a bit wonky. Sometimes one wouldn't turn on but if I turned the lights on and off again it would switch on and be fine for the whole drive so it didn't bother me much.. especially since I'm poor as hell and can't really afford to have work done on it.
Then yesterday my left headlight wouldn't turn on at all, so I swung by my dads and we both got to work taking it apart to put a new bulb in and it turns out whoever owned this car before me put in LED headlights. I couldn't afford to replace the bulb that wasn't working but I still had high beams, so we put the headlights back together (in the process somehow making it so the right bulb didn't work either) and figured I'd just have to be a jerk and drive with high beams until I got the money to get a replacement (I work a graveyard shift, so unfortunately 90% of my driving is at night)
Tonight when I went to work my low beams still didn't work, so I drove with my highbeams on the whole way as planned (20 minute drive) but when I got to work, parked, and turned my highbeams off, both my lowbeams suddenly worked again. I turned my lights off and on again, and then only my right one worked.. I turned the car off, went and worked my shift, and when I tried again before driving home only the highbeams worked. I started driving and sporadically switched back to lowbeams but they didn't work, until about 10 minutes into my drive when they were suddenly perfect again. Drove the rest of the way home with them without a problem.
Now I dont know a thing about LED lights (or cars really for that matter...I'm a computer person, not a car person...) and I don't know if this means its a faulty wiring issue, or if this is how these bulbs go when they start to die.. I couldn't tell you the brand but searching on amazon they look a lot like the cree ones. I know they're 9700 as far as part number goes and if they're not cree, my best guess is maybe they're these? http://tinyurl.com/zzkff2t
The bulbs had "Sah ohok" written on them, but nothing comes up if I google that so I don't know if its important.
So can anyone explain to me what the most likely issue is here and what my best way to go about fixing it might be? Like I said, I am pretty much beyond poor so I'm really hoping this isn't a "you need to have your lights rewired situation" because if it is, I'll be the jerk driving with my highbeams on for the rest of the life of this car..
Anyways, any help would be appreciated.