andy boardman

I have just had my car fail it's annual rego because the dip beam (but low / parking light intensity) comes on (lights retracted) when the switch is in position I - the test station say that this is not acceptable, despite the parking lights linked indicator switch function working fine - they want a parking light at each corner only in I and then everything in II (which they have).

You added to a link re dimdip module / function on a 86.5 euro import and made reference to T5 being the offending article which can be sorted - I have been into the area under the carpet and looked behind the brains etc and have found a silver box (about 3"x3"x1.5") screwed up against the outer bulkhead with writing on it suggesting that this is a dimmer unit - is this it?

I am loathe to disturb anything more than I have to under there in case it / they then decide not to work again......!

Help!

Thanks............Andy

andy boardman

Just to let you know - found it and fixed it!!

T5 - Dim dip module - this lets the dipped beam come on in Position I with headlights retracted with ignition off - and thus caused a UK MOT (annual vehicle inspection) failure for 'not being able to leave car unattended at side of road at night with just four parking lights on".

Module is located to left of the fuse panel (in RHD car).

1. Disconnect earth ground strap in boot to prevent unintentional shorts
2. Remove carpet and fuse panel cover.
3. Undo the two cross head screws holding fuse panel in at top and lower panel to rest fuse side down in footwell.
4. Above panel is a flat ECU pack about an inch high and 6 inches long - it is mounted by two 10mm bolts to frame - remove bolts - when the left is off the mount to the ECU will remove - it is a bracket with a rubber washer in the centre mount. When the right is removed make note of the earth wire which mounts on washer under bolt.
5. swing ECU out and turn over to use up full extension of the cable. Place on the RHS out of the way.
6. on the LHS of the panel space you can see two vertically mounted ECU's which are mounted on the door pillar at 90 degrees to the fuse panel. Look behind these (towards the front of the car) and you should see a silver coloured unit about 3" wide by 3" long by 1" deep bolted on a slant to the door piller side. There are two nuts holding this in place on each of the narrow sides - 8mm heads. Watch for the washers under the nuts when removing.
7. Having removed nuts and washers and eased unit out you will note a small set of leads running from unit to a 3 pin female connector (with white/black, green/white and white/blue wires running to it) which then has a single male unit plugged into it with a single black wire in a loop. This will either be joining the first and second pins together or the second or third pins.

If 1&2 are connected then it means you do not have a dim dip module fitted - if 2&3 are joined then you do. If 2&3 are joined simply remove the bridger and make a new one that joins 1&2 together. (Wally P notes on posting 08-03-2002 that there may be a change required at plug C on front of fuse panel - mine did not)

Reassemble the unit and with care rearrange the bridger unit to sit out in the open so that you can change this bridger if you have to without removing the ECU. Put everything back togethjer carefully making sure nothing left out of place and then test.

With main light switch at Position I with NO IGNITION ON you should have parking lights only on each corner of the car.

At position I WITH IGNITION ON you will have parking lights on and retracted dipped headlights with reduced intensity.

Note - when I did this I had the light relay buzz at me when I switched the ignition on - a wriggle on the unit and it stopped - I think that I had disturbed it when moving the fuse panel about - since then it has not done this.

Problem solved and MOT passed. Needless to say why it took 14 yrs for an MOT test station to bring this up as a failure item I do not know!!

Thanks to Wally P Jim, RandyV for string on strange headlight Prblem posted 08-01-2002. (I would include this link if I knew how to!).

Andy
<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

Randy V

Glad to see you figured it out Andy. Thanks for posting your detailed findings here for others to access in the future.