headlights not coming on S5 TII
 

im having an electrical issue with my headlights on a 1989 S5 TII. Ive done all the troubleshooting and ive found the head light relay is not getting power to close and turn on the lights. if I apply power to the relay the lights will come on. the retractable motors work but lights wont come on. so far ive replaced the light switch, checked all fuses and have traced all the wiring but had no luck. can anyone tell me where is this relay supposed to receive power from? ive been looking at the diagrams and no luck.

thanks in advance.

Paul

Which wire are you providing power to at the Headlight Relay. The relay is supposed to receive constant power on both Red wires. Are they or is this your problem. If it is then you must have a loose connection coming from the Head fuse. If both Red wires have power though then are you supplying power to the Red/Green wire? If so then you are bypassing the relay and voltage to the relay is your problem or the White/Blue wire is not grounding when you turn the lights on via the switch. When you turn the knob of the Headlight Switch it places a ground on the W/L wire and this causes the lights to turn on. So, you need to provide some more info based on what was just said.

What Satch said. Check that the other side of the switch is actually grounded.

Ok. I checked for power on the red green cables and there was no voltage. I ran direct power to these cables for testing purposes and the lights came on. However they will not turn off. I disconnected the light switch and the lights remain on unless I remove the power source or the relay. I did notice on this relay Ground only controls hi and low beams. Which works fine. I did notice that the hi lo beam blue indicator in the gauge cluster doesn't work either. I'm I checking the wrong relay?

Yea I think so. Let me check the diagram later. I don't have it here with me.

ok thanks

Does it not say in a previous post that are two Red wires at the Headlight Relay? If you're looking at a relay which does not have two Red wires then you are not looking at the proper relay (solid Red wires, two of them. Not Red w/a stripe, but Red and only. Red, and two of them to boot).

Ok thanks i just fixed the cables. Sorry about the misconception with the relays they were swapped from their original places so i got confused. Now i found the right one!! I had to run a new cable from the head fuse to the relay. The 2 red wires were cut off but also had continuity with ground so I'm assuming these cables are shorted somewhere. The hi beam indicator is still not working but I have lights and can use the car. (Hi beams and low beams do work) I guess I need to dedicate lots of time to the wiring in this car. The previous owner did some half ass wiring jobs on it so I need to continue tracing cables and bring things back to work how they were originally supposed to. At least now I can inspect it and get my new car on the road :)


Thanks for your help
Paul

The bulb in your gauge cluster is 'probably' bad. There are two round plugs behind the gauge cluster. One of them has a Red/White wire. When voltage is placed on the R/W wire the blue bulb should come on.