headlight retractors dont work. headlights stay on. please help.
 

at first myheadlight retractors stopped working. then my headlights stay on. but all other lights shut off as they should. i have to take my fuse out to shut them off. what could the issue be. all fuses are good.thanks!

idk for sure but if your wiring is good and your fuses are good, maybe the switch itself is bad.

i thought that might be the case. it started doing it at a drift event so idk if something coulda wiggled looseor something. but the switch should be goodbecouse the dash, taillights n parking lights all work.

the knob above the headlight switch is so you can clean the lights..did you hit that by mistake?
hit it again,the lights should do down.
the Main light switch will open and close the light buckets,and turn them on and off,
If not then your headlight switch may need to be replaced.

If a series five.............pull the plugs off the CPU and now see if the lighs now work or not.

First try to pull just the top elect plug off the CPU. The one with 8 wires/pins and see if the headlights act normal now or at least different. If that does not work remove the other plugs and see how it goes. Sorry, I don't have a series five and series four are different. The series five BODY ELECTRICAL shows the 8 pin plug controls the retractors on a series five.

Hailers, early to work today lol.

its a series 4. thanks for the help but the problemsstill there. howcan i check the switch?. to tell if its good or not. thanks!

so i put the headlight fuseback in and now they work buttheratractors still dontwork..... isthere a relay that does bothof them?.

bump!

86 S4 have retractor relays while later S4's did not. What year is yours?

Use post #10 in the link for a way to diagnose your problem. Wiring colors are the the same here between S4 and S5 headlight switches.
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/head-light-947169/

thx. its a 87. i fallowed oneon the plugs andit whent 2a realay. do both go to the same one?.

Early 87 have two retractor relays one for each assy. Later cars have the relay(s) inside the headlight assy.

Doubtful both went bad at the same time.

Retractor fuse has to be good. The connection at the engine fuse box directly below the RETRACTOR fuse has to be on good.

Headlight retractor assy are POWERED by the RETRACTOR fuse and CONTROLLED by the HEADLIGHT fuse via the headlight switch assy.

Turn the headlights one and power from the headlight fuse goes into the switch to a relay. Turning the switch ON causes a gnd to be put on said relay which pulls in and passed the headlight fuse power to the retract relays in the engine bay.

If the headlight assys stay UP all the time..........read the second or third post on this thread where the man suggested you try moving the knob just above the headlight switch to its other position and see if the light assys go down.

IF that does not work, pull the headlight switch plug off the switch. Jumper b/t the RED wire in the plug and the Red/Yellow or Red/Blue wires in the plug. Headlight assys should go up/down when one or the other is jumpered. See attached jpg for what I mean. Note the UP/DOWN wires and their colors at the switch in the jpg. Those match what I just wrote above for up/down action.

Again, very doubtful that both assy relays went bad at the same time.

Im have something of the same problem, I have a s4 engine and everything in the engine by swapped form set s4 to my s5, it started that my head light would stay on as soon as i plugged in the battery (my up and down works on the lights but not when i do it with the light control only with the up/down control) if i put the high beams on i can see they work. only way to get my lights to turn off as to pull the fuse from the front...but know i went back and put he fuse back in and the lights don't work, when i try and turn them on all i hear is the main relay click.

did you get your's fix HOBODRIFT!

Yours sounds more like a stuck Headlight relay. Like it pulls in when you turn the knob to ON and the lights work. Then you turn the knob OFF and unfortunatley the Headlight relay will not relax and so the lights stay on.

Try another Headlight relay.

Remember...............when you turn the headlights to ON, all your doing with the headlight switch is putting a GROUND on the Headlight relay. That relay has power on its coil all day long and is just looking for a ground signal from the headlight switch. Turn the headlight switch to OFF and you remove the ground on teh headlight relay and the contacts open inside the relay and the lights go off. Swap in a new headlight relay. That is for SERIES FOUR cars only. Series five are messed up and use a circuit in the CPU which causes difficulties from my point of view.

And or to prove me right.......the next time your lights stay on, go pull the headlight relay and then just reinstall it right away. See if the lights go off and stay off...or not. IF they stay on..........get a meter out and see if the wire from the headlight switch still has a gnd signal on it.