10 replies to this topic

[TMW.Racing]

Evening all,

In a spot of bother here!! Have lost my headlights, but all other lights (side, main, flash, tail etc) are fine!

Happened after I went for a gap in the traffic, floored it and dropped the clutch a little too quick which caused quite a jolt, and caused me to loose headlights!!

Have checked light switch and plug, no problems there and have had a fiddle with the bullet connectors behind the grill and under the dash but not got anywhere, now I'm stumped!!

Really need the car for Friday so any help greatley received!!

[robminibcy]

I would have a more thorough check of the bullet connectors. Also check to see if any wires could have snagged on the engine which may then have damaged them if the engine moved during the hard acceleration.

[TMW.Racing]

I've checked them and double and treble checked! Not ruling that out but I'm struggling to turn anything up there :-/ 

 

Have checked the headlight wiring at the switch, changed the switch for a new one, looked over the indicator stalk (turned nothing up there but wasn't sure what I was looking for - any advice there would be good!) and checked the bullet connectors under the dash, but no light as yet!

[Craig89]

Get yourself a multimeter and start checking voltage, first at the lights and work your way back (any joins / connections) to the switch until you find it

[lsto]

What year is the car? On my old mini 30 the same thing happened. Turned out to be the relay under the dash. If you look by your right knee area there is a big pink relay if its the same as mine. That's what failed in mine anyway.

Give it a few taps, maybe you jogged it.

Let us know what happens

[KernowCooper]

Voltmeter and trace the circuit is the only true way to find the fault, if you jiggle and poke and they come on, they could go off as quick one winters night

[TMW.Racing]

What year is the car? On my old mini 30 the same thing happened. Turned out to be the relay under the dash. If you look by your right knee area there is a big pink relay if its the same as mine. That's what failed in mine anyway.

Give it a few taps, maybe you jogged it.

Let us know what happens

 

Mine is an '85 - There is no relay under the dash but looking at the wiring diagram there it seems not to show one - Should there be one?

[TMW.Racing]

Voltmeter and trace the circuit is the only true way to find the fault, if you jiggle and poke and they come on, they could go off as quick one winters night

 

Yeah that's what I'm worried about :-/ will be doing a sweep backwards with the multimeter this eve, ran out of daylight last night!

 

whoever thought there was a link between the clutch pedal and the headlights...!

 

I've seen in some other threads people pointing towards the headlight flasher switch, but I'm not 100% what I should be looking for there - could you give directions?!

 

Thanks

[KernowCooper]

Yes probe the circuit into and out of the switch circuit as below, if you dont see a feed into the stalk then slip the main switch out and check the input/output there.

Attached Files

•  Head Light Circuit.jpg   59.12K   8 downloads

[TMW.Racing]

Yes probe the circuit into and out of the switch circuit as below, if you dont see a feed into the stalk then slip the main switch out and check the input/output there.

Thanks for that, added to the check list for when I get home!!

 

All help very much appreciated!!

[TMW.Racing]

Problem Solved and it was a bit of everything!! The electronics behind the grille were very ropey indeed, not helped by a pretty poor attempt at fitting fog lights which seemed to be abandoned halfway through by the previous owner. I think that in the shock from dropping the clutch they all moved about a bit and something shorted as having inspected the indicator stalk unit, the the metal strip to the blue wire was buckled, melted into the plastic (hence the small burning smell I got!) and bent the strip back!!

 

Replaced the majority of the terminals behind the grille and replaced the indicator stalk unit and hey presto, I have working headlights!! Given everything a damn good going over and then another one to make sure of no more failures but it seems to have done the trick!!

 

Thanks to all