Ke36 Lighting Issue

[project-77]

i did a search and found people with similar issues but no exactly the same as mine.

 

The biggest problem i'm having is getting my headlights and indicators to work at the same time. Headlights off and everything works fine. Turn the headlights on and the headlights themselves work fine. except no high beam. and when i try for high beam everything goes dark. i put a narva semi-sealed kit in as one of the old lights was blown and i thought this may be causing the problem.

 

now comes the part that really has me stumped. When i turn the headlights on the rear and front guard indicators light up but are very very dim, where as the ones in the bumper are just as bright as the park lights. when i indicate rear and sides light up but don't flash and the park lights go off.

 

i assume its got nothing to do with the bulbs as they each work fine given the right circumstances (except the high beam)

also guessing its not flasher unit/relay as they work properly when the headlights are off. So would i be right in thinking combination switch or does it sound like a shitty wiring job the person that had it before me did?

 

Sorry for the long post, just trying to give all the info i can. Thanks for your time and any help you can give

[towe001]

Don't be sorry about the long post. The longer the post about the symptoms, what you've done and anything else you can think of goes a long way in what help we're able to give.

 

Some have just posted a comment of "My car doesn't work, why ?" and then they wonder why they get flipped off.

 

 

Now getting down to it, i think you've got at least one short circuit somewhere.

 

Headlights off and everything works fine. Turn the headlights on and the headlights themselves work fine. except no high beam. and when i try for high beam everything goes dark.

That sounds like there's a short to ground in itself. Or the relay isn't working.

When i turn the headlights on the rear and front guard indicators light up but are very very dim, where as the ones in the bumper are just as bright as the park lights. when i indicate rear and sides light up but don't flash and the park lights go off.

Sounds like a bad connection. A build up of corrosion between the connections can cause a restriction (resistive) in what voltage and amps the lights see.

 

If you can get your hands on another combination switch, i'd give that a go and see what happens, cause it does sound like its the combo switch. Other then that it'd be pulling out the circuit diagram, tracing wires with a circuit tester and going over the wires for any burnt wires and/or connectors.

My thoughts would be if its not the combo switch, it'd somewhere between the combo switch and the fuse box at the dash.

[project-77]

thanks for the fast reply and good info. i'll head out tomorrow and look at all the wires inside the cabin, from the combo switch on. And put up an add on the local gumtree to see what comes up for a switch. keep you updated with any progress.

[altezzaclub]

Grab a $10 multimeter at Jaycar and check the resistance going back to the battery -ve from the tail lights. Check the bulbs for any corrosion, as towe said there's a bad connection in there somewhere and the lights are trying to earth out back through the system.

 

The dipswitch might be the problem in the headlights, I'm having the same problem myself. It has low beam only, yet full beam comes up correctly when I manually short out the wire under the bonnet. The dipswitch works OK on the bench with a meter, but doesn't seem to carry current in the car. The bulbs have power as soon as you turn the lights on, both high and low, and they earth to complete the circuit back through the dipswitch. Dip is 'default on', and full beam needs to be switched.