temperamental front headlights :(

aundre-3000 · February 08, 2012, 12:26:17 AM

hi guys had this problem for a few weeks now it went away then came back.

sometimes the headlights work fine but then some nights they flat out wont work and the hi beam light comes on. if i flick them on and off for 10 mins i might be lucky for one of them to come on

how the fudge do i fix it i\'ve looked at the relays by the headlight and the look ok if i move them about a bit the lights seem to work or could it be a bad earth?

much appreciated connor

rx-dave · February 08, 2012, 12:34:56 AM

It may be the actual switch, have you tried winding them up manually then testing then for a live? If they work after wiggling the relays it could be either a faulty relay / cracked dry solder point or the earth itself.

K7RXX · February 08, 2012, 02:59:40 PM

Are they standard bulds or a HID kit? I\'ve had similar poblems with HID kits in the past

aundre-3000 · February 08, 2012, 06:24:17 PM

Quote from: K7RXX;811453Are they standard bulds or a HID kit? I\'ve had similar poblems with HID kits in the past

standard bulbs mate

aundre-3000 · February 08, 2012, 06:25:21 PM

edit: double post

Prof · February 08, 2012, 07:19:51 PM

sounds like sticky relays - I had similar issue on mine, but it could be the contacts within the loom for the lights that runs in front of the radiator - this can give all sorts of random problems

turbointhebrain · February 11, 2012, 10:21:00 AM

have the same problem with my uk series 5, havnt tried to fix it yet though. will let you know if i find the culprit!

aundre-3000 · February 12, 2012, 10:32:27 PM

thanks for the reply\'s they started working again and still are so i\'m hoping they keep on working from now on

turbointhebrain · February 14, 2012, 07:05:08 PM

aundre-3000, does one of your headlights go dim sometimes?

aundre-3000 · February 14, 2012, 07:29:32 PM

Quote from: turbointhebrain;812272aundre-3000, does one of your headlights go dim sometimes?

yeah sometimes if none of them work maybe one of them will come back on ,the other one is dim
and the hi-beam light on the dash is half lit

turbointhebrain · February 14, 2012, 07:45:59 PM

yeah my car had the same symtoms. sometimes when i would flash the lights when one was dim it would come bright again, but got peeed off with it the other day so decided to have a go at fixing it!

took my left headlight out, fairly easy job. just use the switch to raise lights without them on.
then remove the 4 screws from the u shaped plastic surround. then with this outta the way you can remove the headlight unit by poping off the spring in the top corner. be careful though as these can be brittle with rust!
With a bit of jiggling about you should be able to remove the unit.

I removed the H4 3 pin bulb connector to find it like this

i would seem that the earth plug had rusted causing a bad earth and subsquently melting the plug. luckily i had another plug from a series 4 close to hand so i just cut off the old one and joined the new one and fitted a new bulb.

And bobs your uncle..... it worked!! However i have yet to see of this have cured the complete headlight malfunction..... i suppose only time will tell

Ross

turbointhebrain · February 14, 2012, 07:47:31 PM

hope this helps, let me know how you get on

aundre-3000 · February 16, 2012, 12:33:03 AM

awesome thanks butt if it happens again i\'ll have to look at that my old man said its because of a :censored::censored::censored::censored: earth

grinder · February 16, 2012, 12:23:12 PM

you might not be getting a full 12v to the switch in the car .. this caused me no ends of problems

there is a large thread about it somewhere

aundre-3000 · February 23, 2012, 11:17:58 PM

guess what have stopped working again

they completely will not work now looks like it wont go away on its own

temperamental front headlights :(

rx-dave

K7RXX