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parking lights only work

durk80

durk80

Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Location
South GA
Driving early in the morning, I realized that my low beams were not working. I could only get the high beams to come on if I held the stick back with my hand--which I didn't do for long. Tail lights are not coming on either. No fuses are blown, nor signs of melted wires.

I can also hear a click when I turn on the headlight switch indicating that the center console relay is working. Dash lights/ dimmer are functioning as normal.

Tonight, I took out the bulb failure warning unit and hard wired it together, thinking it had burned out since the bulb failure light was coming on any time I touched the brake. Unfortunately, there was no change. Only the parking lights would come on as well as the high beams if flashed.

What tests can I do to locate the problem? Does the latch relay under the hood typically fail like this?
 
Probably still the headlight relay - mine was doing a similar thing (except the high beams would stay on, and the low beams would not turn back on) and while I could hear it clicking, it ended up being the solder joints on the back side of the relay's PCB were going bad.
 
Thanks, StiligFox! I will inspect and re-solder it tomorrow if necessary, and place it on my new parts list if it's found to be faulty.
 
durk80 said:
Thanks, StiligFox! I will inspect and re-solder it tomorrow if necessary, and place it on my new parts list if it's found to be faulty.
Click to expand...

No worries! I?m also guessing you should check the headlight switch itself since it controls when the headlights come on at all - and if the headlight switch is off (or thinks it?s off) then it won?t let the high beams stay on, so that?s my second guess but I have no personal experience there.
 
Well, I tried a relay from a 240 with working headlights, and still no luck. Before I took the switch out, I measured the voltage which was around 10-11 volts without the car running but with the key in KP2 position. Next, I disassembled it, and checked the copper contacts. There was a bit of corrosion on them, but I flowed some solder in one of the pits. No change. I checked the filaments in the halogens, and they looked fine.

Is there anything that I am missing? Perhaps a fusible link or something?


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Do you have a test light? You want to trace the path of wiring and relays to find out where your power feed is missing. Could be as simple as some bad fuses or a bad relay. Or the wiring to one of the components is corroded.
 
dl242gt said:
Do you have a test light? You want to trace the path of wiring and relays to find out where your power feed is missing. Could be as simple as some bad fuses or a bad relay. Or the wiring to one of the components is corroded.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave, for your always helpful and welcomed advice. It looks like I will finally learn how to use a test light, and hopefully, I don't make the situation worse:oops:
 
Thank you, doing my best half blind. I would start at the relay under the dash. That bypasses the switch and has an always hot feed to power the headlights. If you look at the schematic goto terminal 30 at that relay. If there is no power there. You will have to work back to the fuse box to the always hot side which is fed from the power distribution. Looks like fuse six and seven. The left side of the fuses.

Now turn on the headlights with the key on. You should have power at the terminal 87 on the relay under the dash. If you don't then troubleshoot the headlight switch and power to the relay from the headlight switch. The headlight switch turns on the relay at terminal 86 where you should measure power with the switch on and ground for that is terminal 85. Make sure that ground is good because no headlights.

If terminal 86 has no power then the headlight switch or the feed to it has problems. The headlight switch gets switched power from fuse 1.

I would always start to troubleshoot at the under dash relay since that provides power for both high and low beams to the step relay when the lights are turned on. Looks like the yellow in the diagram.
You can check all this with a test light.

You can also check the step relay function by sticking the probe for the test light in terminal 31b looks like a brown wire marked BN which could also be black. lol. The one coming from the turn signal lever. It grounds the step function side to change from high to low beam and putting the probe in there gives the relay the ground through the light bulb in a test light.

Hope that is a bit more helpful.
 
dl242gt said:
Thank you, doing my best half blind. I would start at the relay under the dash. That bypasses the switch and has an always hot feed to power the headlights. If you look at the schematic goto terminal 30 at that relay. If there is no power there. You will have to work back to the fuse box to the always hot side which is fed from the power distribution. Looks like fuse six and seven. The left side of the fuses.

Now turn on the headlights with the key on. You should have power at the terminal 87 on the relay under the dash. If you don't then troubleshoot the headlight switch and power to the relay from the headlight switch. The headlight switch turns on the relay at terminal 86 where you should measure power with the switch on and ground for that is terminal 85. Make sure that ground is good because no headlights.

If terminal 86 has no power then the headlight switch or the feed to it has problems. The headlight switch gets switched power from fuse 1.

I would always start to troubleshoot at the under dash relay since that provides power for both high and low beams to the step relay when the lights are turned on. Looks like the yellow in the diagram.
You can check all this with a test light.

You can also check the step relay function by sticking the probe for the test light in terminal 31b looks like a brown wire marked BN which could also be black. lol. The one coming from the turn signal lever. It grounds the step function side to change from high to low beam and putting the probe in there gives the relay the ground through the light bulb in a test light.

Hope that is a bit more helpful.
Click to expand...

Dave, thank you for taking the time to write those detailed instructions. This has been the first time I didn't feel completely overwhelmed--especially when wondering what point to start with.

Thank you also for making me love the test light, which I think many people don't realize how useful it is. This included myself, until you described in layman's terms what to do with it. At first, I thought it was a shorted wire, but the test light illuminated on the green/red and white/blue wires--even when being jostled.

Despite hearing the relay engage, I must say, you were right! I tapped on the top of the relay and the lights would momentarily come on indicating a faulty relay.

Speaking of relays, which replacement do you recommend?

While the numbers are the same, the schematics on the relays look different. I was unsure if they could be interchangeable, that, and there is a considerable price difference.

https://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/7294/Relay-Window-1235893/
and this one:
http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=3784935&cc=1287053&jsn=446

I think that I will test the remainder of the switches and the high/low beam relay which you suggested to make sure everything is in working order.

Thank you again Dave, for your spot on troubleshooting. It feels much better after taking that first step with the test light!
 
The Eeuroparts one is better. The rock auto one is a 15 Amp and the Eeuro is a 30 amp like what a headlight circuit should have. The schematics are written different but are the equivalent circuit. They also have the same pin out. The current rating is the fail from rockauto.
The higher current rated relay is also Italian. You gotta love that.

Thank you for the good thoughts.
 
An update: Had to use my lights tonight, and they worked! The problem is when the parking light option is chosen on the switch, the low beams will illuminate, and high beams will come on when the stalk is flicked. The lights work in the 3rd position like this as well. This happened with a spare relay and new switch I had as well. Not sure what I did wrong.
 
Hi Dave and thanks for the response. I will try to find my old switch because I believe that the new one had an extra terminal.

Update: This did not solve the problem. Tonight I went out to my other 240 and first swapped out the bulb failure relay, since I messed with that--no change, same symptoms. Replaced it with the hard wired Dave Barton mod. Next, I plugged in the K-relay from the other car, and everything now works correctly. No more low/ high beams on with the keys out of the ignition and the switch on!
 
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