9 replies to this topic

[TehMarchant]

1978 mini 1000

 

Okay so my dipped beam are not working but my sidelights and main beam work fine.

 

So I have tested all the connections from the light clusters to the connections behind the grill and they're all okay.

 

 

Then I tested the connections from behind the grill to the switch and i was having continuity from a blue wire with a white line through it to the earth, have I got a dead short?

[tommy13]

I  doubt you have a short. Blue with white trace is the main beam wire. The continuity to earth is probably through the main beam warning bulb.

The dip beam you have problems with is blue with a red trace. Check this wire for power with a voltmeter or led/bulb type circuit tester with the headlights turned on and dipped beam selected. Check at the connectors under the bonnet locking rail (usual place for problems). If there is no power to these then check at the multiplug where the dip switch joins the harness,  If you have power there then test at the headlights themselves.

Edited by tommy13, 05 October 2013 - 03:11 PM.

[TehMarchant]

Okay I have continuity tested the whole line and it all looks good, I am getting 12V to the connections behind the grille, I have had a look at the bulbs and they have intact filaments. what should I check next?

[Kieranlee999]

just do what an auto electrician told me to do and just remove the dim dip. he said that it wasn't useful but other people might prove me wrong.

[TehMarchant]

So I would have side lights or blind everyone else with my main beam?

[Kieranlee999]

well without mine i have sidelights when the switch is in the middle and full beam when fully pressed down.

[TehMarchant]

well without mine i have sidelights when the switch is in the middle and full beam when fully pressed down.

You will have sidelights in the middle, dipped when all the way down and then main beam on the stick right?

[tommy13]

I don't think a '78 car would be fitted with the dim dip resistor Kieranlee is referring to.

Take the connector off the headlight bulb and connect your voltmeter between the terminal with the black wire (earth) and the terminal with the blue/red. If you have aprox 12v here (dip beam switched on) then the bulb must be at fault even though the filament looks intact.

[TehMarchant]

I have fount the problem and it is a broken cable where it passes through the bulk head, so every time I moved the cable I would get a different reading and kept putting me back to square 1

 

But now I know the problem and I have also noticed that my exhaust gasket is leaking

[tiger99]

If you remove the dim-dip system, which does get rid of a few problems, you need to join the blue-brown and blue-red wires where the relay was or you will have no dipped lights.