Main Beam Mystery

[hughestt]

Hi There,

I don't know if anybody can help me with my problem.

I just changed the heater rad as it had been leaking but when I took it for a test ride, although the heater was fine, I noticed my main beam was not working. I had spare relays which I swapped and made no difference but as they were old ones, I checked the solder connections and they looked fine.

I've just checked all around the blower uint to see if there were any connectors I'd broken or disturbed and then I got my meter out.

The checking at the dip switch, it appears to work.

Looking at what wiring diagrams I can find, it seems that the high beam is activated by an earth condition being extended by the dip switch to the S tag on the red headlamp relay. I am measuring for this earth and it does arrive but only about 3-4 volts-worth.

Does anyone know if this is enough? Or if there is anywhere in-between that I can break in to check?

I don't want to buy more relays that I suspect will make no difference but I'm also reluctant to go hacking into the wiring loom though I fear that is where I'm heading.

When the relays gave trouble before they were intermittent but this fault is "permanent" for want of a better word and the car is a 1997 2.0 CSE Auto anniversary.

Any suggestions?

Cheers
Terry

[Paul Anderson]

Terry,

Pretty sure it will be down to either the BIG RED or adjacent Orange relay. These are generally to blame for lighting ( and other ) problems in the 9000.

I you put your location in your profile then someone close to you could offer help. As you can see, I am in Kippen, Stirling and have, perhaps a dozen of these for test by substitution.

Paul @ Kippen.

[captainfrank]

If it's anything like the 9-5, you'll just need to open up the big orange relay and re-solder the contacts to the pins. It's pretty easy to do.


Frank.

[hughestt]

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll keep you posted.

[hughestt]

Hi Folks,

I think I've cracked it.

The dip-switch is supposed to extend a earth/ground condition through to tag S on the red control relay to bring the main beam on. By poking about with my meter, I managed to localise the missing condition to the red/white wire between the dip-switch and the multi-connector in the engine bay behind the left hand headlamp. I broke into the loom just inside the false bulkhead and it was proving back to the multi-connector and with a bit of tugging, a break in the wire revealed itself about four inches back from the connector. I pieced a bit of similar wire in to make up for the re-joins and made good with a few twist and solder joints covered by shrink-sleeving.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for the guidance.

Cheers
Terry

[lizzard-t]

Thank you for updating your thread , and that it came to a happy conclusion.
Goes to show these cars are sent to try us in more ways than one .
Happy new year to you terry .
Paul .