MazerRackham Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 (edited) So I was driving my girlfriend around the other night when the headlights went out. At first I thought it was a bad fuse until I saw that they were still perfect. So tonight I tore apart the headlight combo switch and saw that all the wiring was correct and in its proper places. When I went around the front of the car to see the headlight wiring I found two relays, and the power & ground were spliced into. Yes the previous owner did actually do something to make my life easier. So I jiggled the ground and the lights still did not come back on. Bad fuse? I'm still trying to figure out how to get the sugar scoops off so I can get a look at the actual modification to the headlamp itself to see if the job he did on the wiring. He did a good job soaking the connections in di-electric grease. I'm pretty sure he just dunked the connectors in Vaseline from what it feels like. Pro tips anybody? ALSO gratuitous a picture of my subwoofer tail light panel build. Edited May 30, 2012 by MazerRackham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madkaw Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Not sure if you know how relays work, but if you don't----try the Daniel Stern lighting website(you know-the bad guy in Home Alone in NYC). He does a nice job explaining them and give you some hints to troubleshooting. I would pull the relay and my multimeter out and start checking voltages. Are you getting a trigger voltage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 The relay probably took a crap, or it could be the combo switch. Did you hit a bump or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 The relay probably took a crap, or it could be the combo switch. Did you hit a bump or something? Nope. Went into safeway and my headlights were working. Came out, and they pooped the bed. Didn't make any sense. Before I could play with the combo switch and jiggle the hi-beams and the headlights would come on, but not anymore I guess... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 (edited) Not sure if you know how relays work, but if you don't----try the Daniel Stern lighting website(you know-the bad guy in Home Alone in NYC). He does a nice job explaining them and give you some hints to troubleshooting. I would pull the relay and my multimeter out and start checking voltages. Are you getting a trigger voltage? HAHAHAHAHAHAH excellent. I tried but the ONE AND ONLY DAY I decide to use my harbor freight multi-meter it also pooped the bed so I ordered a quality one. But yes I am getting a trigger voltage. I can hear the relays click when I move the flapper to turn on the headlights. Edited May 30, 2012 by MazerRackham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Just cause the relays click doesn't necessarily mean The power is getting through. Once you get the multimeter check for power to the relay, and away from it. You could even use a noid light for this since you're just looking for power and not how much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 Just cause the relays click doesn't necessarily mean The power is getting through. Once you get the multimeter check for power to the relay, and away from it. You could even use a noid light for this since you're just looking for power and not how much. Cool thanks brother! I'll check and report back!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six_Shooter Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 The headlights get removed through the wheel well, not from the candy scoop side. Look in the wheel well, and you will see 3 or 4 screws (I don't recall exact number), that hold the headlight bucket in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Mileski Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 I'd check one more time for a good and tight ground connection. Mike Mileski Tucson, AZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Looking at your trunk, I assume this is a 280Z. Another other way to test it is just to get a length of wire. Turn on the lights, then touch the wire to the leads on the relay that the relay normally would connect when turned on. if the lights come on then it's bad relay, if not then it's something else bad. maybe check your fusable link, that's kinda notorious. yes you can use a meter to check if you're getting power, but a relay is just an electric switch, all it does internally is connect the two Normally Open pins when the coil is energized. Separately from that, if your relay checks out good, and your fuses and fusable links are all good, then next you can start checking wires, which you can do by pulling out the bulb and checking coninuity and voltage point to point, OR, again you can use your length of wire and connect battery power to the relay power wire to the headlight, or directly at the headlight to test the ground. Now you might want to use an inline fuse on your wire, just incase you tough the battery wire to ground, the frame or what not, so you won't burn the wire or your car's wiring. Now I'm not saying the meter isn't the better way to test it, I'm just saying if you know what you're doing you can safely test things with a length of wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 Looking at your trunk, I assume this is a 280Z. Another other way to test it is just to get a length of wire. Turn on the lights, then touch the wire to the leads on the relay that the relay normally would connect when turned on. if the lights come on then it's bad relay, if not then it's something else bad. maybe check your fusable link, that's kinda notorious. yes you can use a meter to check if you're getting power, but a relay is just an electric switch, all it does internally is connect the two Normally Open pins when the coil is energized. Separately from that, if your relay checks out good, and your fuses and fusable links are all good, then next you can start checking wires, which you can do by pulling out the bulb and checking coninuity and voltage point to point, OR, again you can use your length of wire and connect battery power to the relay power wire to the headlight, or directly at the headlight to test the ground. Now you might want to use an inline fuse on your wire, just incase you tough the battery wire to ground, the frame or what not, so you won't burn the wire or your car's wiring. Now I'm not saying the meter isn't the better way to test it, I'm just saying if you know what you're doing you can safely test things with a length of wire. Excellent dude! thank you! I did this to figure out my fuel pump problems. I would do this, but the voltmeter got here in the mail so I think I'm going to use both methods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 (edited) I determined the cause of my problem was my combo switch. After I removed the switch, dis assembled it, cleaned everything, and re-assembled it my dash lights nor side-marker or parking lights come on anymore. What gives? When I was looking around the headlight relays I found that there were some wires that ran directly back to the fusible links from the head-lights, and they were NOT fused. Should I be worried? Never mind, I have 6 fuses instead of the necessary 4. I'm guessing the PO hooked up an extra 2 fusible links for the Relay upgrade and some other wiring I should be worrying about probably... Edited June 4, 2012 by MazerRackham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 So after messing with your combo switch you lost you're dash and sidemarkers? but did you fix your headlights? Could be that when you had the combo switch out, some wires in the back of it unsoldered or came loose. Take it back out and check all the wires for continuity when you switch the lights on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 (edited) Removing the Double Bullet connector for ground and splicing together two different wires with a separate bullet connector brought back my blinkers, side-marker lights, gauges, solved my intermittent hi-beam issue, and solved my intermittent windshield sprayer problems Continuity tests for every possible switch combination came back good. Problem is somewhere else. Continuity tested the relays. They are good too. Methinks that a connection between the "B" plug went bad Edited June 5, 2012 by MazerRackham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 (edited) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1cap6yETA So I was going through the lights with a volt meter and found 0 volts at the bulbs. Strange. So I ran a ground cable back to the battery and found 8 volts at the bulb. My battery is dead so if it were fully charged I would be seeing the full 12 volts. So I spliced a battery ground cable to the headlight ground and found a consistent 8 volts BUT NO LIGHT!!! I was looking at the custom fusible link the previous owner installed and it has a 20 AMP maxifuse installed. The fuse looks good. Could both of the headlights gotten bad bulbs at the same time or something? This is strange... Edited June 5, 2012 by MazerRackham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazerRackham Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Bulbs were bad. Replaced with a 30 dollar pair from the local home supplies store. Brighter than ever and I learned a SHITTON. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Bulbs were bad. Replaced with a 30 dollar pair from the local home supplies store. Brighter than ever and I learned a SHITTON. Welcome to the other side. You've traveled the road of a real car guy/hybridz owner. Feels good don't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 lol your car trolled you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuoWing Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 This sounds like every problem I ever have. I always take the long way around fixing a bunch of other things that weren't necessary at the time only to find out it was something super simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Funny how both bulbs went out at once... That's gotta be a rare occurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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