black944 turbo

I was just wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to clean the contacts on the switch instead of buying a new one. My high beams pop on when I hit a bump and when I turn the right turn signal on. If I pull back on the switch they will go off. Any ideas of what to try would be appreciated. Oh my car is an 86 Turbo I know the switches are different than the early 85's if that makes a differences. Thanks for your help.

Luis de Prat

You know, I just went through a similar situation with the turn signal/high beam switch on my 83 and reached the conclusion that at least the early switches are difficult to restore after 200K+ miles and 20 years of service.

I took the switch apart and cleaned, etc. but the moving plastic parts had become so worn that I chose to go with a used switch from a lower mileage car.

Check eBay or post here. People are selling parts all the time. As an example, the wiper spraying/delay function went bad on my S2's triple-stalk combination switch and I recently bought a used unit in fantastic condition for 1/3 of the dealer price.

Good luck with it!

JimV8

Sorry I can't offer a solution but i have a similar annoying prob, when I switch my lights on the wipers make a single pass and wipers also will make a pass when the car goes over a jarring bump. I cleaned grounds as recommended but the problem persists.

black944 turbo

Thanks for your help guys. The thing that baffles me most is that my car only has 78k on it and still stupid stuff like this is happening all the time. But I guess I will just have to suck it up and by a new one.

black944 turbo

I just thought I would post an update. Tonight I took off my switches and I watched how the high beams went on and I saw that the one arm was very close to the other. That means that they where touching when I hit a bump or turn signal was on. Anyways I simply used a small screw driver and bent the tab up a little bit out of the way and that has fixed the problem. So if anyone else out there is having a similar problem. PM me and I can help you with how to fix it. P.S. my switch was still in good shape just the tab somehow got bent down a bit. Thanks guys for helping me out.

sm

black944turbo:

Can you tell me where the high beam switch is? Is it in the whole cluster that is behind the steering wheel? Do I need to remove the steering wheel to get at it?

This morning my high beams were stuck on when the headlight switch was only at the low beam position. Based on your post and that of others, it seems like a switch problem. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

black944 turbo

Sm, yes you need to take the steering wheel off and take the trim off around the combo switch. If memory serves me right there is a 12 or 13 mm bolt you have to loosen and the entire combo. switch comes out. There are a few small areas were you can watch the contacts. Watch what happens when the high beam is activated and you should be able to see what the problem is. Mine has been great for 5 years now, not one problem since this incident.

PS sorry if this gobbled, ask anyother questions you may have.

A good trick with the steering wheel is to take a black magic marker and put a mark on the column and on the wheel so that when you put the wheel back on it is in the exct position it was in before. Don't be scared about removing the wheel it is very easy.

sm

black944turbo,

Thanks for the information. It happened again on my way home today. The beginning portion of the drive was fine, then about 15 minutes and after using the turn signal, the high beams permanently stayed on. I tried to finesse the stalk a little forward and backward, to no avail.

Then when I got home, I shut off the headlamps and turned them back on. Of course the lights worked as designed.

I peeped in the gap right below the high beam stalk and saw a couple of metal tabs. They seem to be sitting side by side - one closer to the driver-side, the other closer to the passenger-side. I can't tell if they're making contact though.

Do you remember exactly which tab you bent and in what direction?

Thank you

black944 turbo

I don't, I just watched which one was contacted when the high beams were activated and I bent that away from the stock so there was a touch more gap.

Don't bend it much and after bending watch to make sure it is still contacted.