ZDreamin72 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 okay so ive ben driving my car...with the right hand headlight being dimmed and then one night i drive to dinner with some friends...no problem...and when i get back into the car...the healdights wont work...fuses are all good...grounds are all clean...i dont understand...liek a week later...they all started working again...any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nizm0Zed Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 dunno, but mine did it the other night too, jumped in to go get pizzas, flicked the lights on, and nothing, only parkers. Flicked them off and on and no good, checked the fuses, all good. pulled the stick back for highbeams, they came on, then turned them off and the low beams worked. No idea why, im guessing perhaps it was some sort of ground or power issue through the 30 year old switch? just took a bit of movement to clean the contacts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quicker240 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Check your dimmer switch.Pretty common on our old Z's.If it is the problem,you may want to look into adding relays.I think somebody here is selling a plug and play kit that takes the electrical load completely off the headlight switch.It makes the lights brighter also by virtue of getting better voltage to the bulbs.Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 One night my headlights just shut off for a few seconds and then came back on. A few weeks later I had the engine and radiator out and noticed that on my 73 there is a connector in front of the radiator that supplies both headlights. It had come apart just enough to become intermittent. I pushed it back together and have had no issues since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZDreamin72 Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 yeah..the dimmer swith thing though...i played with that too...nothing...it jsut started working randomly one day no matter what i did...i guess it probably is the switch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 In your first post you said the headlights went out. Did you mean the dash lights? The dimmer only controls the dash lights - it has no effect on the headlights. If it's the switch on the stalk, try wiggling it. If the lights come on, then that's the source of your problem. Those switches wear gradually and hence usually don't fail completely all of a sudden. BTW, it's not hard to take that switch apart and clean the contacts. It's been discussed here and on classiczcars.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Add a set of relays, do a search for headlight relays. Your lights will be brighter and it will solve many of these issues. You may still need to clean the contacs in the switch. Clean the contacts with some contact cleaner spray even if you do the relays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZDreamin72 Posted September 22, 2007 Author Share Posted September 22, 2007 hmmm, well thanks...it was the headlights not the dash lights...the...ah we'll jsut clean the contacts how about that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daeron Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 link to a relay write up that i did on my subaru forum... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74632 It doesnt quite spell out what you need to do on your Z-car for you, BUT I explain practically everything you need to know about how a relay works and how to install a simple relay into your car for, just about anything. Absorbing that knowledge and integrating a relay into the wiring on your Z is up to you. For the record, one diagram is inaccurate; a five prong relay outputs power to terminal 87A when the relay is turned "off" and I mistakenly made the diagram showing that it outputs power with the relay "on" just like terminal 87. However, that is moot point since you only need a four prong'er anyhoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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