83 Euro, friends car having a TB/porkensioner/water pump job. was off the road for 4 months. Got it started and running finally today having finally got the fuel pump unjammed.

At some point in the last 3 or 4 weeks down time the headlights came on by themseves probably overnight, but in the down position and flattened the battery.

Now that the car is running again the symptoms still remain. ignition off key out , insert headlight relay and the headlights come on and stay on to do some UFO spotting. Ignition on engine running they stay on.

Turn the lights to the parking light position they stay on, UFO spotting,. Turn the lights to headlights on and they raise up and the lights go off while raising then function normally. Had a look at the relay and none of the contacts are sticking, cleaned all the relay contacts for good measure although they all looked pretty clean anyway. Didn't actually test the relay with the cover off, and we didn't have the circuit diags to hand to do anymore diagnostics.

Is there a simple answer or is more testing required ?

 

bump

 

So the headlight raise and lower as normal? - up with headlights on and down with marker lights off ?

If this is the case then the behaviour seems to suggest a problem with the relay. The limit switches are what normally cause the parking of the headlight motor in the up position when it is commanded to go up - and in the down position when it is commanded to go down.

There is also an interlock so that during the rotating up period the headlights are disabled - that is why they go off... and that suggests the relay contacts work OK.

I'd be looking at the relay socket to see if any terminals are dislodged especially the "56" pin terminal.

Also see if that (56) terminal in the socket switches with the headlight switch positon 2 (headlights on).

You might also want to test the limit switches and diodes in the motor - but it sounds as if they are working correctly

Alan

 

Thanks Alan

Yes the headlights work completely as normal when the switch is turned. The only abnormality is that with ignition in any position and headlight switch off, the dipped beam element is lit. Hopefully I'll have time to study the wiring diagrmans today to understand the correct operation a bit more.

 

I had a similar problem on my euro '84. Headlights went on by themselves in the flattened position.

Happened that one of the outer copper connections on the light relay was wiggling, connection number 86 on the relay. It was sitting loose in the solder.

So I opened the relay (bending the aluminum cover ends), got my multimeter to make sure it wasn't making proper contact, and simply held a soldering iron at the existing solder and the contact melted back on it. I added some glue to the copper connection to make sure it wouldn't brake out of the solder again. Saved me 70 euro on a second hand relay.