Need Help! Headlight Relay Clicking and Lights Staying on.
09-13-09, 07:38 PM
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Need Help! Headlight Relay Clicking and Lights Staying on.
Hello, been awhile since i posted but i really need some help.
Got a 88 NA converted to turbo. The car worked fine for years but with no wierd electrical problems. I used to have my whole interior stripped out but then decided to put the whole interior back in. All the wires stayed the same the only thing diffent was my car now had a dash carpet, and doorpanels. Now its does this wierd thing where even with the key out the headlights, interior lights and parking lights all stay on. The headlight relay makes a wierd clicking noise which my roomate says it is "oscillating". If i unplug the relay or the red wire going to the fuses (in the engine bay) it all stops but of course the headlights dont work any more. Anotherthing i noticed it that the headlights wont pop up with the light switch but will with the headlight motor switch. I noticed some hacked up wiring on the left harness, so i replaced the whole harness (took me forever) and still had the same problem. Another thing is i have the battery relocated in the back. But like i said all the wiring is the same as before and it worked fine. Please help! Any ideas would be appreciated.
Got a 88 NA converted to turbo. The car worked fine for years but with no wierd electrical problems. I used to have my whole interior stripped out but then decided to put the whole interior back in. All the wires stayed the same the only thing diffent was my car now had a dash carpet, and doorpanels. Now its does this wierd thing where even with the key out the headlights, interior lights and parking lights all stay on. The headlight relay makes a wierd clicking noise which my roomate says it is "oscillating". If i unplug the relay or the red wire going to the fuses (in the engine bay) it all stops but of course the headlights dont work any more. Anotherthing i noticed it that the headlights wont pop up with the light switch but will with the headlight motor switch. I noticed some hacked up wiring on the left harness, so i replaced the whole harness (took me forever) and still had the same problem. Another thing is i have the battery relocated in the back. But like i said all the wiring is the same as before and it worked fine. Please help! Any ideas would be appreciated.
09-13-09, 07:54 PM
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I also forgot to add that i have tried various light switches, headlight harness's, and headlight relays. All of them had no effect. I am also missing the alarm ECU, but am not sure if it is required or not because there was never one on there before.
09-14-09, 01:17 AM
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Seeing as how this isn't a series five convertible, it's safe for me to make a remark or two.
The HEADLIGHT relay has power on it 24/7 from the HEAD fuse in the engine bay fuse box.
You turn the headlight switch to ON, and put a Ground on that relay to pull it in and turn the headlights on.
So PART of your problem is a gnd coming and going to the headlight relays coil from the headlight switch. A chattering relay if you will.
You have changed a lot of things out and MIGHT have put series five componets in the car.
I'd pull the plug off the switch, then carefully look at the colors of the wires in that plug and compare them to the color of the wires in the first jpg attached. They must match.
I'd also pull the plug off the dimmer switch and compare those wire colors with the ones in the second jpg. They must be the same.
The third jpg shows how the headlight switch works for the Headlight part of that switch. The red line starts at the bottom of the picture at a ground point...........goes thru the switch when turned to ON..........then out the switch to the headlight relay to pull that relay in.
The retraction/up part of the headlights is indeed a power thing, but forget about that part right now. Thats the Blue lines in the third jpg.
It sounds like a switch/short harness problem of some sort. A mismatch of the short headlight harness b/t series cars or maybe a series five headlight switch in a series four OR a combination of those items being in the wrong series car.
All the items you have a problem with are on the battery bus so no key is required one way or the other for them to work.
The side lights and interior lights work off the switch being turned to On and that feeds power to those circuits. It's too hard to figure out whether it's the switch or a mismatch of the headlight short harness as the problem. The colors in those two plugs mentioned in the beginning of this post MIGHT hold the answer.
The HEADLIGHT relay has power on it 24/7 from the HEAD fuse in the engine bay fuse box.
You turn the headlight switch to ON, and put a Ground on that relay to pull it in and turn the headlights on.
So PART of your problem is a gnd coming and going to the headlight relays coil from the headlight switch. A chattering relay if you will.
You have changed a lot of things out and MIGHT have put series five componets in the car.
I'd pull the plug off the switch, then carefully look at the colors of the wires in that plug and compare them to the color of the wires in the first jpg attached. They must match.
I'd also pull the plug off the dimmer switch and compare those wire colors with the ones in the second jpg. They must be the same.
The third jpg shows how the headlight switch works for the Headlight part of that switch. The red line starts at the bottom of the picture at a ground point...........goes thru the switch when turned to ON..........then out the switch to the headlight relay to pull that relay in.
The retraction/up part of the headlights is indeed a power thing, but forget about that part right now. Thats the Blue lines in the third jpg.
It sounds like a switch/short harness problem of some sort. A mismatch of the short headlight harness b/t series cars or maybe a series five headlight switch in a series four OR a combination of those items being in the wrong series car.
All the items you have a problem with are on the battery bus so no key is required one way or the other for them to work.
The side lights and interior lights work off the switch being turned to On and that feeds power to those circuits. It's too hard to figure out whether it's the switch or a mismatch of the headlight short harness as the problem. The colors in those two plugs mentioned in the beginning of this post MIGHT hold the answer.
09-14-09, 04:22 AM
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Thanks for the input Hailers, you are right i have done alot of switching and swaping so there is a few s5 parts in there. Im going to check out the things you mentioned and update. Thanks again.
10-03-09, 05:03 PM
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Hailers.... You da Man! the wires were still tha same but i think i must of had a faulty switch somewhere. I had about 5-6 switches and harness's and i just tried diffrent combinations until one fixed the proble. Thanks again.
