Headlights wont go down.
 

Ok as the title says I'm having issues with my headlights on my JDM FD.

Ok the issue started when I lowered my car and rubbed the wiring harness. So I went out and got a wiring diagram for the car and looked over the harness and fixed the wires that were rubbed and examined for any broken wires which I didnt find.

After all that time still had the same issue as before. So went back to the wiring diagram and took the whole front of the car apart looking for any other issues I could find. Nothing, I examined all the grounds and relays that have to do with the headlights and still nothing. Hell I even changed my interior switch 3 times, still nothing.

Well that is where I am at and I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on anything they might think could be my issue.

Thanks in advance and hopefully we can fix this issue.

time to break out voltmeter to see if you are getting power to the relays/headlight motors

Manually retract them down...will they go up? With battery connected if you turn the headlight knob to the right to lower them, does the motor kick back?

The headlights are getting 12.35 volts and yes when the motors are plugged in they do default to the up position and they do kick if i try to crank them down while plugged in

WiredRebel,

Could you give some additional information? The troubleshooting flow charts are different whether your headlights work properly with the headlight switch on the stalk but not using the retractor switch, or whether they work with the retractor switch but not with the headlight switch. Two different troubleshooting trees...

you're gona have to get some C-West Projectors :)

Sorry can you explain this again. you lost me.

If I can't get this issue fixed it just means I get to order the r-magic headlights sooner.

OK. There are two ways to raise and lower the headlights. The combination switch on the steering column both raises/lowers them and also turns on and off the headlights. The "Retraction Switch" just to the left of your fuel gauge will toggle the headlights up and down without turning on the headlights. So what I would like to know is what happens when you toggle that switch as well as what happens when you turn on and off the combination switch. That would help isolate the source of your problem.

Ok, I get it now.

The retraction switch: When the lights are plugged in and in the up position I can press the switch all I want with no effect at all.

The combination switch: When the lights are plugged in and in the up position I can turn the lights on and off all I want and they won't go down or up or do anything besides turn the lights on and off.

I even went as far as putting a volt gauge on the motor plug and had a friend move the retraction switch with no change in voltage at all.

Not really sure what to do anymore. Getting kinda discouraged and about to call it a super early season and save for parts to get the car going better next year.

You are getting power to the lights so the head light relay should be ok. There should be a White/Green wire that goes from headlight relay and combination switch that feeds power to the retractable headlight relay.

A Brown wire feeds the retractor relay from the retractor switch.

If you get light output but no headlight up and down, I'd suspect a bad retractor relay...check that relay in the long front relay box by the front bumper. Power to the headlight retractor motors comes through this relay via the retractor switch or the combination switch.

Retractor relay grounds to JC-02 below the long front relay box and the headlight retractor motors ground to JC-01 for the left and JC-02 for the right.

ALL THE ABOVE INFO FOR USDM FD..JDM may be different but I don't have diagrams to indicate JDM differences

Also: You will have 12V power to the headlight motors since current runs to it constant through the retractor switch and with ignition on through the headlight combination switch ...the retractor relay controls the current to tell the motor to switch up or down.

So we know you have good power to motors, good lights, BUT no movement using the retractor switch or combination switch.

Rare that both motors would have gone bad simultaneously.

All signs seem to point to the relay being bad and stuck in the up position. I'd test the relay

or I could be COMPLETELY wrong...post up what you find, real interested in what this issue boils down to.

evot23 has it right, IMHO. The 'Retractable Headlight Relay' is either stuck in the 'Up' position or the 'Down' contact is corroded and not making contact with the relay's wiper. You can test it:

All the measurements below are made with the combination headlight switch on the steering column in the OFF position.

At the relay, the brown wire is connected to the relay's wiper. Power comes through that wire from the 'down' contact of the Retractor Switch. Since that is a push/push toggle switch, find out which 'push' of that switch shows +12 volts on the brown wire, and leave it in that position. If you cannot get +12 volts on the brown wire, the Retractor Switch is bad.

At the relay, the red wire with blue stripe is the 'Up' output contact of the relay, and the red wire with yellow stripe is the 'Down' output contact. If the relay is operating normally, you would see +12 volts on the red/yellow wire. If you see zero volts, check the red/blue wire. If there is +12 volts on the red/blue wire, the relay is stuck in the 'Up' position. Replace the relay. If you see zero volts on both red/yellow and red/blue wires, the internal pieces of the relay are broken or it is hung up between 'Up' and 'Down' states. Replace the relay. If you see +12 volts on the red/yellow wire, report that back here!! :scratch:

Ok, sweet. Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to check this stuff out later this week and I'll post up what happened when I try these things.

Did you ever figure out this issue? I'm having the exact same problem.

nm found out I had a bad relay.

Relay-retra ?:)

i have the same symptoms but on some jdm cars there is a retra relay in the footwell beside accelatrator . the us modles have it on the front pannel inbetween the lights

i took a the relay out and when i put a wire link from the far left top pin to the opposite side of the plug i can lower the lights and raise them with the other pin. i suspect my relay is bugered. its not a normal relay though as this one has resisters and capacitors in it. a replacement is needed :)

hate to bump an old thread but this one is most relevant.

when manually wound down, the headlight switch will not cause the headlights to pop up. when the headlights are turned on, the headlights will pop up and illuminate. when the lights are turned off, the headlights will remain in the up position. i have already replaced the headlight up and down toggle switch with a 100% functioning one and it does nothing regardless of the headlight position.

my question is, can the retra relay half fail? can if fail so that it only allows 1 function? i want to ask in advance before i go and purchase a new one or if i should be looking somewhere else...

I replaced the retra relay with a good one and it solved nothing. I also tried a completely different set of headlights and got the same results. I troubleshot, the toggle switch, the relay and the headlights themselves. What would be my next step?

I will be trying what wstrohm suggested with the pins and see what results i get. I think i accomplished the same goal by replacing the toggle switch and relay with working ones but i will check with a multimeter.

The fd isnt very attractive with the headlights up in the day time...................... or at all.

Headlights Wiring Diagram
 

Maybe this will help.

Also forgot to mention my car is RHD. I dont know how much that diagram will be of use to me but i will try and decipher it and see what i can come up with.

Thanks

Any update on this yet?


J.

Hey, I know this threads been dead for a while now and I know that some of this was already covered but I just fixed this issue tonight and I figured I would try to explain this issue as best as I can. Basically I had the same issue where the headlight talk switch wouldn't do communicate to the motors at all, just turn the headlights on and off. The re-tractor switch would bring them up but not down. So I did some research and I was messing around. Basically from what I can tell, the stalk wont communicate to the motors at all if there even a slight issue with the re-tractor switch, meaning one is dependent on the other to work. I knew my switch was fine and the relay was good, so basically there was an issue in between.

From what I gathered from the wiring diagram. Coming off the re-tractor stitch, the brown wire makes them go down, and the red wire with the blue stripe makes them go up.

In my case when I popped the bezel off, I saw that my brown wire was crimped to a white wire going somewhere else for some reason (Something drawing power?)

So basically In I recripmed my brown wire (I will have to go back and re solder this one) just to test and sure enough the re-tractor switch AND the stalk worked perfectly.