Help - can't see where I am going

[factbv]

Went to go for a drive this evening and no lights on diped beam (front or rear). Main beam works when you pull the lever towards you as if you were flashing your lights, but not when you push the lever away from you to put them on continuously. Checked all fuses seem OK.

However, when I push the light switch in the dash, to turn the lights on, I can't hear a click in the footwell from the relay, as I can when I select main beam with the lever. Could the relay be solid state (ie you can't hear it) or are they all mechanical.

Assuming that they are mechanical does the problem just sound like the relay, I suppose it could be the switch itself?

Anyway, if so can I easily swap relays to fault find and can you just pull them out of the board? ie they are on spade connectors.

I ran out of daylight to do any more faultfinding tonight, so will get the bible out tonight and have a go in the morning.

Any wisdom from experienced Griff sparkies?

Many thanks

Peter

[Seasider]

factbv said:

Any wisdom from experienced Griff sparkies?

David Beer are you hearing this ??

[Griffter]

Do you have to have the sidelights on to switch the dipped headlights on? I think I do.
Relay ought to be mechanical. If not the above, sounds like a problem with the switched voltage to the dipped relay. Multimeter time me thinks.

[factbv]

Griffter said:

Do you have to have the sidelights on to switch the dipped headlights on? I think I do.
Relay ought to be mechanical. If not the above, sounds like a problem with the switched voltage to the dipped relay. Multimeter time me thinks.

Griffter, many thanks. I had another go this morning. The main problem is that because the car is a bit unusual, the relay positions don't match up to any of the diagrams in the bible. Therefore, I'm still not sure which one is for the headlights / diped lights.

I managed to get a new relay that was the same as 4 of the relays and substituted it one at a time, but no joy. The other relays are quite different and I couldn't get them from my local motor factors.

I do need to have the side lights on to get the main lights to work so I took out the air vents in the dash and checked the connections at the back of the two switches with a dentist's mirror, looked OK.

To make matters worse I had a version of David Beers excellent headlight mod done by Fernhurst (both sides were rewired not just one) there are now some relay(s)in the headlight pod but I can't remember if they are for the diped beam or for the full beam. There was so much other work going on at the time I forgot to ask.

Does anyone know how many pins come out the back of the relay that does the side and normal headlights. I know what all the relays look like now so that would help me locate it. I seem to have lots of different makes of relay from Ford, GM etc

I don't have any rear lights or side lights so I assume that they are all from the same relay.

One last thought: I have had all the fuses out on the main board and they are fine. Are there any fuses else where that would be for the diped beam, I'm guessing not.

Thanks for any help.

Peter

[factbv]

Sorted

Took the dash out, found intermitent fault where one pin in a connector was loose.

Dash back in, no damage and works great.

Had a top down drive through Windsor great park to celebrate