My headlights are not working and I can't work out why. It started off intermittant for a year or so but has just become permanent. When I turn the switch fully on for the low beams the high beams come on instead. My dash lights, dash dimming, hazards, numberplate lights, tail lights, fog lights, EVERYTHING else still works just not the headlights. I have replaced the clearance lamp fuse in case it was that (even though everything else on that circuit still works) because it is the most recommended thing in similar situations but no change, it's not blowing. I found this post from Gazza while I was trying to find a solution but it has me wondering why that switch would activate the high beams all of a sudden, or is the combination switch the one that switches the indicators and high beam? What does this relay do? Could this be the culprit? I have switched the other 2 headlamp relays with the sub fan and aircon relays and no change. I'm assuming it's not the globes because I have had one blow before and the high beams did not come on.
Maybe have a look at this, not exactly your prob unless you have HID's? http://www.aus300zx.com/tech/H-light_conversion.doc Also, check http://www.aus300zx.com/tech/faq/headlights.htm and the fuses under H/Lamp RH and H/LAMP LH
Now that I've thought about it a bit more I think it is what Gazza was saying in the post of his I quoted. The switch on the indicator stalk is buggered and in any position is turning the high beams on It threw me at first because I thought he was talking about the headlight switch and I couldn't see how that would have anything to do with the high beams. Or it could be that relay I circled. I think that relay's function is to turn the low beams off when you turn the high beams on, going by the headlight mod tech vbevan linked to (thanks). I'll try swapping that first cos it's easy
Quick fix For anyone else who has this problem in the future, here is a quick fix so you can drive at night until you fix the real problem. Go to the fuse box under the bonnet and open up this relay Next make yourself a wire like this Then bridge terminal 3 and 5 inside the relay, this will give you back your low beams
Not the switch... you have a 12v light wire earthing out somewhere. Check your rear number plate lights as the first culprit. Do a search on my forum name on this topic and a very helpful reply from Dangerous Dave who taught me this fix
I don't think that's the problem I have. Firstly everything else works except the headlights switch to high beams and secondly that fuse is not blowing. I'm positive the problem is the switch. If it were as you suggest surely I would have the same symptoms you had
if you like i can give you a hand on the week end and we can easily prove what it is with a multi meter
Solved Many thanks to Scrubber and his fault finding skills :thumbsup: We pulled the combination switch out and checked it with the multimeter and it seemed to be a bit intermittant in making contact so pulled the cover off and sprayed some contact cleaner in and moved the switch around a bit, rechecked and seemed to be working well. Refitted and ... still stuck on high beams. Looked at the switch again and it seemed like the contact for the high beams was not making proper contact in the low beam position so bent the tab a little and hooked it back up, still not working so we swaped in Scrubbers switch ... same problem so the switch was ruled out. Next we checked at the dim/dip relay, hmmm, no earth to the coil from the combination switch so that meant the fault was somewhere in the wire between the switch and the relay so we decided to run a new wire to the switch. While I was routing a cable Scrubber pulled the fuse box to get to the back of the relay and it must have been our lucky day, the break in the wire was about an inch away from the relay so just fixed the break and now she's all good.
No problems Gald to help out just one point tho and i Know it doesnt mean much but the broke wire was the switched +ve from your switch. So your original thought that the switch was faulty was pritty close to being correct you did well
Excellent that you found a solution and provided details for members with this problem in the future. Just a note for anyone reading this with a similar problem - when I was fiddling around when I first got the car and putting in a new stereo system, I could only get high beams on. First point of call (as directed over the phone by Mark aka zed4life) was to check for the simplest solution first - a blown fuse. And that's what it was, so an easy fix. Always check the most basic/easiest place to solve the problem first!
Ahh, silly me, I though it switched the earth. If you have the same symptoms as me there is no point checking that fuse because EVERYTHING STILL WORKED bar the low beams. If you lose all lighting and only get high beams then it's the fuse and something blowing it. It's about as similar as someone finding out their car doesn't work because the CAS is broken and someone else saying when their car didn't work it was out of petrol, so check that first
LOL yeah, I see what you're saying Marklar, just that the longer you're on this forum, the more you see the same question being asked again and again. I don't remember if the other in-cabin/dash lights were working or not but that's irrelevant and wasn't really my point. It's just that if some newbie sees "can't get low-beams, only high-beams", they might not think to check the fuse and waste time and effort instead of starting with the most likely culprit and an easy fix. Make sense now?
Well that other problem had been referred to twice already with links to follow and it was annoying me that it kept being brought up. I apologise if I seemed a bit rude.
Nah, didn't seem rude, just sarcastic (hence why I started with LOL in my last post). Admittedly, I missed the link that vbevan posted that did already mention what I said. Either way, anyone with that problem who's reading the thread won't be able to give any excuses, will they? As they say: no harm, no foul.
just 1 other thing The broken wire didn't have the insulation damaged at all it was the copper inside that was broken. What we saw was a weird kink in the wire. After sitting back and thinking about it i wouldnt be suprised if we see more of this as our cars age.
