electrical gremlin

[roberthearn]

Just a quick question for any of you electrical wizzards. I appear to have developed an intermittent fault with dipped beam on the near side headlight. First time it happened, I had the access hatch off and wiggled all the connections seemed to 'fix' it. Was happy but it was a bit unsatisfactory, cos it wasn't clear which connection it was and it couldn't be reproduced. Been fine for a few months and now its intermettent again. Its not 'flicking on an off all the time' intermittent, its more like its random whether it'll be on for that particular journey. Its obviously a short somewhere, but I was wondering where I hould be wiggling to try and find it?
Any ideas greatly received.

Rob

[stesrg]

Cut off those old terminals and re-crimp some new ones on

[griffter]

roberthearn said:

Its obviously a short somewhere, but I was wondering where I hould be wiggling to try and find it? Any ideas greatly received. Rob

Not a short, but a failing connection I should think. The connectors for the headlamp wiring get very grotty. Pull them apart, one at a time, clean the spade ends with fine sand paper, stick a tiny screwdriver in the female connector to clean that as best you can (gently else she'll complain), then smear a small amount of copper grease on the spade before remaking the connection. It's also worth having a look at the terminal on the bulb itself - especially if the rubber boot that should cover the back of the headlamp unit is missing. If it is missing, you can bodge a replacement with a plastic bag and pull ties. Similarly, if you have the time, you can put a section of eg inner tube over the connectors and pull tie each end closed. Whatever you do, don't push the headlamp unit into the headlamp pod! Not impossible to retrieve, but very very frustrating !

[roberthearn]

Thanks for the advice. it seems that its in an 'on' phase at the moment, but sounds like a job for the weekend.

rob