18 replies to this topic

[Millso24]

I fitted new wipac headlights last week and have noticed that the brand new H4 halogen bulbs i brought have got dimmer and dimmer over the week untill the drivers side is barely working now!

last night the lights didn't turn on at all, but have started working today?

Im very confused... its a 95 1.3i cooper with a brand new 306 battery cant remember the actual name but was highly recommended as the best battery to get for a mini... in June's mini world there was a question about this issue and they mentioned that dynamo mini's might struggle to cope with them - not sure if this is applicable to me... but im out of idea's

Any help greatly appreciated...the wifes using the car as her daily car at the min so dont want the lights to just stop when she's driving it!

John

[M44K TS]

have a look behind the grille at where the headlamp looms join the main car loom with the bullet connectors. They have a ver annoying habbit of corrodeing causing a high resistance, efectivally limiting the power that gets to the bulbs. Unplug them, give them a wipe over with some WD40 on a rag and put them back in, your lights should work fine again.

[Millso24]

have a look behind the grille at where the headlamp looms join the main car loom with the bullet connectors. They have a ver annoying habbit of corrodeing causing a high resistance, efectivally limiting the power that gets to the bulbs. Unplug them, give them a wipe over with some WD40 on a rag and put them back in, your lights should work fine again.

Cheers for that ill give it a try tomorrow

[gumball]

Also check the dim relay by the radiator....??

[Millso24]

Heeeelllpppp

Ive had a look at what i believe is the dim relay and one of the sockets wasn't plugged in so have pushed it back in and both lights have dimmed now... its like there not getting enough power but they should be right?

Ive attached some pix... please help asap

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[Millso24]

Ive just found two disconnected wires and an empty plug style socket coming out the bottom of the radiator... the wires are sheared off and dont seem to connect back on.

could they be the problem?

[Millso24]

Right retraced the wires back from the headlight thats not working properly and found this (see pic) i cant for the life of me see anywhere to plug it back in...

On a random note, the sidelight works on the headlight that doesn't work but doesn't work on the one that does and everything works fine on full beam (argh)

Still trying so anymore advice would be great as MOT in 3 weeks

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[Millso24]

The more i look the more and more wires im finding that are either sheared off or just not plugged into anything!

Picture 1. Cant find anywhere near the wire where it could plug back into?

Picture 2. what is the plug (american style) thing on the bottom of the radiator? as there are 2 sheared wires next 2 it... what do they do?

Picture 3. there are 2 sheared wires that are wired along the top of the grill? what should these be doing?

Got the bonnet off so if anyone can offer advice within the next couple of hours that would be fantastic!

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Edited by Millso24, 29 April 2009 - 01:51 PM.

[minimanclive]

The thing in the bottom of the radiator is the thermostatic switch for the electric cooling fan in the inner wing. The wires next to it shoud probably be plugged into it. If you join them the fan should come on.

[M44K TS]

Picture 1, if it's a purple wire with a black trace, it should be for your horn. Does your car have a horn?

Picture 2 & 3 look like it's for an electric fan/thermostat switch as clive says.

Also your headlight problem, did you try cleaning off the bullet connectors behind the grille?

[Millso24]

Picture 1, if it's a purple wire with a black trace, it should be for your horn. Does your car have a horn?

Picture 2 & 3 look like it's for an electric fan/thermostat switch as clive says.

Also your headlight problem, did you try cleaning off the bullet connectors behind the grille?

pic 1 is a red wire... the horn works so its not that

I did clean off the bullet connectors and generally went round and cleaned everything i could find yesterday... replaced a load of fuses as they were really corroded - strangely now the lights are working fine on normal and parking but only one comes on in full beam!!! the fuses have helped lots of things, rear, interior lights etc... i have put new fuses in all of the headlight slots but still not working properly, really strange that they've changed from one not working normally now not working only in full beam!!!

Pic 3 is two black wires that run along the top of where the grill screws in that are sheared so not sure if there anything to do with the thermostat?

Thanks again for all your help... we will get there eventually MOT in 2 weeks so want to find it before having to pay a mechanic to do so!

[M44K TS]

have a look on the back of your fusebox, they are held in with 2 screws, make sure it hasn't corroded as they're a weak point in the elctrical system, loads of strange problems can be linked with a dodgey fusebox.

[Millso24]

have a look on the back of your fusebox, they are held in with 2 screws, make sure it hasn't corroded as they're a weak point in the elctrical system, loads of strange problems can be linked with a dodgey fusebox.

Okey dokey ill check tomorrow and let you know... how hard are they to replace if it is corroded?

[Hughes]

1st pic (connector being held near drivers side headlight) looks like temp sender. Does your temp gauge work? Sender is on the block under the coil on mine.

Ive just re-organised the wires at the front of mine. Cut out all the bullet connectors, soldered them properly and hid the wires inside some tubing I got off ebay. Hey presto all work perfect.

Quite why they put a load of exposed bullet connectors behind the grill is beyond me.

[M44K TS]

Good old BL cost-cutting