headlamp issues

[igot2heads]

re felicia 1.9 diesel:

this is an intermittent problem, and has happened 5 times in 7 months.:

on ignnition, switch side lights on - OK

switch headlamps on - don-t work.

engine ignition is fine and i think all other electrics ok (apart from fog lamps which only work when headlamps do)

try several times, still nothing.

leave it overnight or for 2 hours , headlamps work fine

help please: ive been stranded at night once now.

[anewman]

This sounds similar to my problem with my 94 favorit glxie which I never managed to fully resolve - but tapping my fusebox starting gently then tapping it harder until they come on usually resolves the problem. I would avoid excessive force though to prevent obviously breaking anything and having your fuses all fall out. If tapping doesn't help, open up the fusebox and rock the relays about a little bit as that sometimes helps if the tapping does nothing.

In my case it's usually either only the sidelights or the headlights light that doesn't come on on the dashboard and IIRC headlight light on dashboard out means dipped beam offside light is out, and sidelight and dash illumination out means rear offside light is out. Once they come on they usually stay on and have only turned off about 4 times and come back on with a lean over to the fusebox and a gentle tap. I am looking at getting my fusebox replaced when I manage to get hold of one in the hope this cures the problem.

Other things to check for include (with current weather) whether any water is leaking through the windscreen and getting into the fusebox. Other thing people suggest to check is the earth connections which should be taken appart and cleaned with a connection cleaner then put together again and I think applying something to protect the connection from corrosion would be a good idea, possibly vaseline or copper grease.

I disconnected all the connectors and relays from my fusebox and used connector cleaner on the connections and put it all back together and I think it made the problem slightly worse so I probably wouldn't recommend trying that.

Let us know how you get on - and if I get around to replacing the fusebox I'll let you know if it fully cures my problem.

[igot2heads]

garage replaced headlight switch, left lamps working. until 6pm when they didn't.

i spent a long time tapping fuses and relays.

problem resolved. did it again, and reproduced the problem by twiddling one relay.

thanks for advice.