Dash Lights out, headlights wont do back down
 

I don't drive my 85 GSL-SE that often and cant remember driving it at night until yesterday. Yesterday is was dark and I started it up, turned the headlights on and they both came up illuminated. I noticed right away the dash lights were out and thought the roller dimmer switch was turned off...wrong. Drove the short distance home and when I turned off the lights they went off but did not retract. I did not see a fuse that related to either function so I am at a loss here.

Any help is appreciated.

-Ted

Sounds like a weak battery. What happens if you try to start it?

It's not the batter it's brand new. it starts right up and everything else works fine including headlights

Have you tried measuring voltage and grounds of the affected components based on the wiring schematic?

Thanks but that is well beyond my capacity. I will probably have to put it in the shop...although the "shop" is the only guy I know of that can work on older 7's and is 80 miles away. My regular mechanic does not want to deal with it.

Dumb question, but you said when you turn the lights off the headlights did not return to home. Is the headlight retraction knob set to down?

Not a dumb question, I just view it as ensuring I am not being "dumb". Yes, it is set to down....as I stated the dash lights are out as well so perhaps the power to the switch that controls the headlights retracting is affected.....looking more and more like $$$$

Well I had a similar issue a while back. Turns out I forgot to reconnect the grounds in the front of the body, and it partially smoked my headlamp switch. Have you had a look at those grounds and checked if theyre corroded or whatever? Theyre on the fron harness somewhere, I ended up just self tapping my own grounds in a more convenient location.

Well that would make sense I will take a look and see what I can see....it sits inside my garage so it should be protected from too much corrosion...but it is 33 years old.

Thanks!

The ground wires made one one of my lamps go down. Find every ground and take them off, clean up and screw back down. There are ground wires by each headlamp. Also buy some electrical contact spray and unplug the motors . All easy fixes and may save you a long trip.

Also just realized that you have an FB, and I was talking about my FC. I dunno if its the same, or if the FBs had the same HL switch problems.

Should all be type of issues. 30 year old ground connections should be cleaned regardless of gen.

Right but I wasnt sure if FBs had our POS sensitive HL switches in FCs, and if a bad ground could cause them to fail, like in FCs.

Check your fusible links


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...8bd3b0498d.jpg

^^^This dude's nailed it. The fusible links on the driver's side strut tower, facing the front, control the headlight circuit for the lamps, as well as the retractor motors. If one or both of these are burned, or high resistance, they'll cause exactly the issues you're describing.

Also, in the photo he provided, you can see he's installed the Bussman Fusible Links from Autozone or Pep Boys or O'Reilly which are a direct plug-and-play for the twisted wire strands used by Mazda. They're probably worth replacing at this point so you'll never have to worry about stock fusible links again. Also, note that the -SE models have 2 additional Fusible Links attached to the same block for the Fuel Injection system.

I'd put $$$ on it being to blame. Good luck, and good call, aeenox!

AWESOME THANKS AEENOX!

I looks like joining this forum is going to save me some $$$$!

I will look into the fusible links and get back with the results.

-T

I am not sure which amperage to purchase....I see brown, black, brown and corresponding pink/yellow. Advance auto parts does not have the same ones.

Thanks,

disregard previous post. Found the bussman fusible links at Autozone, plugged them in, headlights still locked in the up position.

Looks like its going into the shop.

Thanks to all for your help

Try disconnecting the battery, take the rubber covers off the top of the light motors, and turn the lights down. Sometimes this will reset them.

Thanks I will give it a try

If the manual switch in the center console is bad or disconnected, the headlights will still pop up just fine but will never go back down. Not exactly sure what causes this but the switch must be present and operational (not being used however) for the lights to go back down. Might be worth just pulling the switch out and unplugging and plugging it back in. It should be a 4 prong connector if I remember correctly. It also may be in the column switch as the up and down are two separate circuits. Start with the basics. Ironically I'm dealing with headlight electrical issues myself right now :(.

Good luck.

The same fuse that is for the dash lights also powers the signal to the solenoid for lowering the headlights. It should be a 10A fuse in your under-dash fuse panel (I believe it's labeled "TAIL ILLUM"). If you're unsure which, just pull fuses and check if they're burnt out. Replace that fuse, and the dash lights and headlight lowering should work again.

If the fuse burns out again, you will need to track down the fault in that circuit. There are wiring diagrams at foxed.ca that you can use to help.

There should be nothing wrong with the fusible link, as it provides power to the headlight motor for both raising and lowering. If it was burnt out, the headlights would neither raise or lower. That fusible link also has nothing to do with the dash lights, which are on the primary fusible link that powers the under-dash fuse box. If that link were burnt out, nothing would work.

I would think the fuseable link would affect both assemblies not just one. Not sure how different FB headlight motors are from the 79/80 SA's, but the SA's have a small rectangular relay box clamped to the side of the motor, under a rubber cover. It has a harness plugged in the bottom too.

Un plug the harness and remove the rubber cover. Next, bend up the small tabs holding the actual metal cover on to gain access to the relay. It's has some contacts, like a set of points in an old ignition. Hit the faces of the contacts lightly with a finger nail file and give them a small squirt of WD-40. Then try them again. Sometimes you can get the offending headlight to function again just by tapping on the relay w/o any disassembly.

If the dash lights do not work, it may be that the dimmer potentiometer-switch is faulty. Some years ago, my dashlights stopped working and we bypassed the potentiometer to be ground. It's not like the dimmer was ever needed, anyway!

I'm going to bet its related. I'm having the same issue and haven't been able to hunt it down. But i have also been holding off and starting to tear into wiring. everything is in sad shape.