12 replies to this topic

[DHA]

Restoring a 1980 Mini and never had the dip beam to work... 

 

On light switch position 1, the sidelights and gauge lights come on. On light switch position 2, nothing happens.

 

On the stalk when pulling towards to flash the main beam works, but when pushing back they don't stay on continuous (not sure if they are meant to).

 

Both light switch and stalk are brand new.

 

Have replaced all 2 way bullet connectors on the front rail, and tested the dip beam to make sure it works with power from inside the car.

 

A bit lost here. Any ideas?

[sonscar]

Usual cause is the light switch.Second cause is the connectors behind the grille.After that you need a test lamp to trace the fault.The headlamp flash is wired separate to the lighting circuit.Steve..

[Davidmt]

I had the same issue last year - turned out it was just a bad bullet connector to the headlamps at the bottom of the grill area.

[Ethel]

Headlight flash uses the same (purple) permanent live as the horn. If that works the circuit from the stalk to the headlights, at least for the high beam, is good. The fault is most likely the light (rocker) switch, or in the (blue) wire between it & the stalk.

 

You could remove the rocker switch & hotwire the connector block to confirm:

 

Brown is 12v in

 

Red is dash, side & tail (via a fuse)

 

Blue supplies the stalk, that switches either blue/red (dip beam) or blue/white (high beam).

[stuart bowes]

I'd take out the lamps, then switch everything on and use a voltmeter to work all the way down the wiring until you find 12v. that will probably locate either a loose connection or damaged wiring unless you get all the way back to the switch in which case see above

seeing as you're tracing it all out anyway and hunting down faults, possibly repairing damage (unless it is just a connector come loose..) maybe consider taking this chance to do the rewire with relays option for better power to the lamps

Edited by stuart bowes, 17 January 2024 - 02:27 PM.

[DHA]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

Traced the problem back to the stalk. Bridged the connect coming from the light switch to stalk and the dip beam works! Frustrating as the stalk was brand new...

 

Any way of fixing the stalk or just worth spending another £25 on a new one?

[Verderad]

There is not much inside of them to fix, open it up and check that everything is in the right place. 
IIRC the power to stalk is connected into the stalk with a push fit connector (female bullet)  check thats seated in correctly. 

[andyapanel]

Check the multi connector from the switch is seated properly.

[Ethel]

I'm a bit confused dot com.

 

What did you bridge exactly? If it was the terminals at the light switch, the fault's likely the light switch & very unlikely to be the stalk.

 

If you unplugged the stalk to connect the solid blue to the blue/red (on the loom side) - yes it likely is the stalk. If you can, send it back. If that's not an option, they're pretty tinkerable. The wires can break loose - and be soldered back on. The contacts sometimes don't, quite & can be carefully bent 'til they do.

 

They're pushed pretty hard anyway, so you could add a crossover relay, or two, to make  the stalk redundant for turning on dip beam by using high beam to turn it off.

[DHA]

I'm a bit confused dot com.

 

What did you bridge exactly? If it was the terminals at the light switch, the fault's likely the light switch & very unlikely to be the stalk.

 

If you unplugged the stalk to connect the solid blue to the blue/red (on the loom side) - yes it likely is the stalk. If you can, send it back. If that's not an option, they're pretty tinkerable. The wires can break loose - and be soldered back on. The contacts sometimes don't, quite & can be carefully bent 'til they do.

 

They're pushed pretty hard anyway, so you could add a crossover relay, or two, to make  the stalk redundant for turning on dip beam by using high beam to turn it off.

Yes I connected the solid blue to blue/red on the multi connector and the dip beam worked

 

Think next stage will be to have a tinker or just replace entirely. 

[andyapanel]

I had trouble with a tiny bit of corrosion in a multi plug once.

It might be worth cleaning all the connections before buying a new column switch.

[DHA]

Problem fixed!

 

Ended up being a poor connection in the indicator stalk which was easily fixed.

 

Thanks for the help!

[andyapanel]

Excellent