High beam me..

[stiddy]

Hey all..

Tonight was driving home from a friends.. and its long dark back roads.. driving with high beam lights on.. no problems all is well..

car comes the other way.. do the nice thing and flick to low beam.. or switch high beams off, whichever you prefer..
anyhow all lights turned off.. for a few seconds and then low beams came on.. the dash lights stay on..

mmm thats a little strange.. so i did a few tests.. and when i turn my high beams on and off the low beams turn off with the high beams for a few seconds and then back on.. sometimes they dont come back on and i have to flick the switch on the dash off and on for the low beams to come back on..
but if i pull the leaver to flash my high beams.. the low beams stay on..

and sometimes, mainly tonight.. just driving along with low beams on they will cut off for a second and back on.. its really weird and worries me a little.

mmm even stranger.. now when i get in the car and turn the lights on, sometimes they dont turn on even if i turn the switch on inside the cab..
have to flick the switch off and on for them to turn on.. sometimes twice.

Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

ive played with fuses and relays and they all seem to be ok.. its not the most comforting thing when you are on a dark back road and your lights just turn off.

[JC]

Originally Posted by stiddy

Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

Could be one of 2 things:
1. The switch
2. The relay.

I would guess it's the relay, but without testing it , that's just a guess - it could just as easily be a borken solder in the switch, or corroded contacts in the switch, etc. Take it to a sparky and get them to check it. To state the obvious, having your lights turn off like that is dangerous to you and other road users.

[AWD Chaser]

I would say loose or coroded contacts somewhere if they are just turning off while your casually driving...

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Sounds like a dodgy/sticky relay to me too. You can test all your relays manually if you make a lead with a female relay plug on it , power them up manually from your battery to the loom you make for testing , you can then test them with a multimeter to see if they are operating straight away or sticking.
Or , it could even be posibly that its gettin to the point where you battery is getting low . The highbeams draw alot of amps and draw off the alternator & battery , running your highbeams for a while could of drained your battery badly, soon as u switched back to normal beam the battery might of been too low on amps to run the accessories/ignition system and normal beam again - and has to charge the system battery for a brief few seconds before the main headlights start drawing from the alternator with the battery too - sorta like its brieflly charhing the battery before it is loaded up again before its doing anything else , a possibility ? ..

[Mechan1k]

Sounds like a relay ... I had issues with highbeams flickering though ... and found the highbeam relay needed replacing .... but this sounds like a low beam relay to me

[Stav]

Next time you have the problem call me. I might not be much chop with mechanical work but I am pretty good with car electronics.

[boodek]

Earlier Falcons (ED, for example) had an overcurrent relay which would open when headlight current draw exceeded its rating, unfortunate when belting down a dark road at 100. Like all safetys of this type they got old and tired and ended up opening far earlier than they should after a few years. Not sure if the AU had this setup but maybe worth exploring?

[TwistedEL]

Originally Posted by XR6-VCT-2000

sorta like its brieflly charhing the battery before it is loaded up again before its doing anything else , a possibility ? ..

You'd think the engine and everything else drawing current would cut out also if this were the case (stereo, parkers, ecu, bem etc) I would stick with the relay explanation

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by TwistedEL

You'd think the engine and everything else drawing current would cut out also if this were the case (stereo, parkers, ecu, bem etc) I would stick with the relay explanation

not really - thats maybe why it might of shut off the main beam for a few seconds, so the rest wouldn't cut out (especially the ecu) - like it needed to charge the battery/top up a bit more off the alternator for a few seconds before the headlights start drawing too high amps again (if the amps were getting too low to start with in the battery, and with alternator and battery combined and power needed to run the ecu correctly and lights etc etc)- a possibility maybe ... but yeah , i'de be checking the relays thoroughly first though .

[Mechan1k]

Stiddy ... how'd this go????
Had it checked out yet ... best bet is get a trsuted auto sparky to look at it ... hopefully shouldn't take too long to diagnose ... and might be just a good idea to replace the relay anyway ... they are a fairly cheap item

[stiddy]

lol ive been fairly lazy, the XR is parked and im driving the Celica around.. i'll go and buy a relay for it today sometime.. if the lowbeams turn off and i tap the relay the lights turn back on.. so im fairly sure thats the problem lol..

how much are relay's usually?

[blackers10]

$5 or so im guessing

[Gambit]

Originally Posted by blackers10

$5 or so im guessing

I would keep guessing. Toyota h/l relays I think were around $50 & up.

Originally Posted by Gambit

I would keep guessing. Toyota h/l relays I think were around $50 & up.

THe Falcon uses pretty standard relays.

Can't see it being more than $10

Before you spend your money first check your grounds. While your at it you can pull the wiper relay out and and test the high beam circuit with the spare known-working relay. There under the coolant bottle from what I can remember.

[RspecAU]

I have a similar problem but my high beam will flash on and off but the thing with mine is they seem to have two levles of brightness if i have them on the brighter level thats when they start to flash but with a small tweak on the high/low beam stalk is the only thing that will bring them back to the lower level of high beam. I have changed the relay but that hasn't fixed it.
Don't buy the relay from FORD it'll cost u about $16

[TwistedEL]

2 levels of high beam? there is a point in the travel of the stalk where both low and high beam are on - between the two settings... sure that's not what you are seeing?

[falconnut]

Thanks for the info.

Hopefully getting a new low beam relay will fix my problems.

[Dave_Obsession]

[Reaper8]

5 years between posts unreal but hey may as well jump on two. i had a problem with one of my low beam coming on and off all the time, had a look at the bulb and it was moving in the headlight so i adjusted (bent) the lock in clip and havnt had a problem since, maybe this will help someone in another 5 yrs or so LOL

[Road Games]

and me .... my lights ficker everytime i corner or accelerate hard flashing from dull to bright and i have checked every earth :/ give it a rev in neutral and it stabilises only to come back cruising along on the highway ???

It is driving me nuts !!!