Charlie944

Here is the deal: I have headlights they work just fine. The headlamps pop up but do not go down. The parking lights/tailights/sidemarkers do not come and no dash lights. I just spent the last couple of hours trying to diagnose the problem Yes fuses are all okay. The + and ground on the switch have continuity along with + to Blk/Gray (Terminal 58l on back of switch for parking light engagement) and ground to 58l has continuity as well. Terminal 58l and the Blk/Gray wire has continuity down to fuse 14 on the main fuse box (checked factory wire diagram to figure this out). I do have a constant 12V on the red + when checking it to the Brown Ground without the switch installed over female wire terminals. But I do NOT have 12V when I install the switch and check the same red + to the Brown neg! Also I am unable to get 12V down to fuse 14 with the switch installed. So my volatge I feel is going somewhere it is not supposed to when I have the switch installed...I just cannot figure out where! This is all in regards to the 84' Porsche 944 of which I installed a new headlight switch 3 years ago in it. I also took out the headlight switch from the 1983 944 and tried it with the same results and I know that one is a good switch. The only clues I have are whenever I would go over a large bump (IL sh%*@y roads) at highway speeds the dash lights would go off then back on again, real quick like.


I would greatly appreciate any comments. Thank you all in advance!

Charlie944

bump...I am going out to tackle this somemore. Any insight?

Chris_924s

Did you clean the headlight grounds? There are 2 brown bundles, 1 in each headlight bucket.. You'll have to have the headlights up to get to them.

iloveporsches

CHECK YOUR F'ING GROUNDS!

Sorry, just a little homage to SidV. Anyway, cleaning all the grounds on the car might help. Certainly won't hurt.

Spock 951

I had a similar problem on my early 85 944. The problem was in two spots: 1) where the plug connector connects to the board under the drivers footwell. The dash lights, running lights, fog lights and headlight-down function are all on the same connector/circuit. By unplugging that connector and cleaning all the contacts, I was able to get them all to work again. It looked like one or two of the connector blades was not making good contact, so I bent a small piece of copper wire over the blades and that seemed to fix the problem for a while. Reach down under the dash and wiggle the connectors while looking at the dash lights (or fog light button) to see if this is where the problem is.

2) The lights started to fail again later and I traced it back to some loose connection in the wiring right above the board in the footwell. By reaching under the dash and wiggling the mass of wires, I was able to get everything working again. Never took the time to find which wire had the bad connection, though.

Keith

Charlie944

Thank you all for the replies. I traced the above wiring to a connector on the turn signal stalk where a gray wire from the ignition switch makes contact with the parking light contacts for the headlight switch, but no luck, I even took the turn signal stalk out of the 83' and popped it in with no luck. Keith I will search for this connector down in the footwell region going to the fuse board. Hopefully, that is my culprit here. I have been checking my grounds as I go.

Again thank you all for the help. I will post more later.

Charlie944

Update: I checked that connector aforementioned and it was tight, but I seperated it and cleaned and put it back together...still nothing. So I flip on the headlights (they turn on, but doors were still up) and I turn on the fog lamps. Since this whole deal the fog lamps would not turn on with just parking lamps, but with headlights on they would. Now with the headlights and foglamps on my ground wire that goes from the headlight switch to the tach to the speedo FRIED! Like a backyard barbeque! That same ground wires runs into the combo gauge next to the speedo but was unaffected at that juncture. Soooo...I am not sure if I have an insufficient ground or if I have a short to ground? Or both?

I will string up a temp ground wire from headlight switch to ground bypassing the gauges for now just to see what happens.

Charlie944

Well I ran a new ground wire for the headlight switch and the tach and speedo. The gauge lights actually worked for a bit and so did the parking lights!! But then nothing again I did notice that when I had the headlights on and I turned the foglights they operated backwards. Foglight switch on was foglights off and foglight switch off was fogllights on. I ended up disconnecting the foglight relay and I took a look at the switch and it looked alright. No crispy wires found other than the one that scortched up earlier. As of now I have no gauge lights and no parking lights and my headlights do work but do not go back down. Keith I was reeeeally hoping it was that connector. I am at a loss here folks. I need some sleep bad I have not been to bed since yesterday morning.

I hate electrical gremlins with a unparalleled passion!!!

Spock 951

I feel for you. I have had my share of electrical problems in my car, some due to creative wiring by the previous owner, some due simply to the age of the car. When I was trying to get my rear wiper to work again, I ended up running all new wires because the previous owner had made some changes to the wires that resulted in a blown fuse every time I tried to hook up the original wiring. It was just easier to run the new wires rather than try to sort through the mess that he left.

It sure sounds like you have a break in one of the wires or a loose connection. You can drop the board, and start tracing back the wires from that connector - all the problems are definitely on that one circuit. You can test the voltages at that connector so you can at least figure out if the problem is before or after that connector. Unfortunately, the board and wires are not in easy to get at places. Ask me how I know...


Keith

Charlie944

I have success! I strongly believe I had a faulty ground and a sub par contact with a connector (the one we had talked about Keith). Everything works great, and no more flickering dash lights whenever I go over Rockfords poor excuse for a road repair bump. Thank you for all you help and time everyone. Ya know I looked and looked to find where that circuit is grounded to and the factory manual said it is by the fuse box and relay panel. I sure did not see anything so I ran my own ground the way the factory did for the headlight switch, tach and speedo to a for sure spot where I know where it is.

Thank you again Keith et all!

bendavis2

I'm not sure if you're still connected to this account, but I'm having the exact same issue that you were. (on my 1983 Porsche 944)

After reading through your diagnosis and solution, I'm not sure which connector you ended up running a new ground to.

Any chance you remember this repair from 19 years ago? Did you run a new ground to the turn signal connector in the steering wheel stalk? Or another.

Thanks.

Charlie944

Hello there, whew in trying to remember this one. Unfortunately I don't have that 84' 944 any more but I still have my 83' Callaway 944. I don't recall the exact connector but it has a grey with black stripe that may look like it has gotten hot before with wrinkled insulation. You will have to get your head down in the foot pedal area and take down the particleboard cover that holds up the wire mess from the relay panel. The new ground I think was out of that connector to a good known ground. Also if you have not already clean the grounds bundle by the right front frame area by the headlamp. I ran a braided ground strap from the camshaft cover to that came ground bundle too and installed a second ground off the battery to the top of the bellhousing and re-did the ground from the battery to the cowl firewall. A headlight relay kit will also help take the strain off the factory wiring especially if you use higher watt bulbs. I used to run Cibè E-code headlamps and Narva Phillips 90/100w bulbs with relay kit and man they were light cannons. If you can shoot me some pics I might be able to remember more of the wiring. Best of luck!

Le_zOU

read up and find this

Tiger03447

When dorking around with the fog lights, do yourself a BIG favor and change out the dual relay ‘way above the gas pedal. It is infused. If it sticks and shunts all the battery power to the plugs in the fuse panel and change your wiring harness into a morass of melted. Wiring. Costs about 35.00 for. A new relay. Better than 3500 at a garage redoing the wiring. Just sayin’

Shdjh

After reading through your diagnosis and solution, I'm not sure which connector you ended up running a new ground to.