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Headlights go up and down constantly


Professor
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I have a situation with the headlights. When I turn on the headlights they constantly open and close. They seem to have timing changes. Most of the time 1 will close and the other will open. Sometimes they both open at once and close at once but never stop opening and closing. When I shut them off, they will stop where ever. Partly open or partly closed. I'm at work now so I haven't got my manual here. I do have to drive 43 miles to get home though so it would be nice to fix them before I have to leave. Any suggestions would be helpful. If I knew which relay it was, I could switch it with something else. Any help is appreciated.
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This isn't any details for you, but it sounds like you are getting a goofy connection between your flashers and your flip up / down circuits. I'm guessing you will need to take your switches apart and clean/repair them. Again this is just conjecture at this point but it makes sense from what I know of that button panel.

 

Allen

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Ya before any thing ..

Clean the fusible link and contacts maybe.

It's one of the 4 on top close to the battery.

Should say "pop ups" or something of that nature on he side of e fusible link housing.

 

If that don't help I'd check what speedy said.

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If they keep going up and down it's a sign that there's some kind of short probably at the switch, as if you kept pushing the button. If a link was dirty, more than likely they would either stay down or up, or just not move, but can't rule it out. Just one of those annoying electrical things with this car.
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I had a similar situation a while back. I tried a bunch of different things, but what I'm pretty sure fixed it was the ground behind the cluster. It wasn't really loose, but wasn't really tight either. I pulled it and reseated it and things have been fine since. It was totally random. I'd never messed with that ground before.
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That happened to me when I took the relays by the battery out to clean connections. Turns out that I switched them when I put them back in, when I swapped them around it worked like normal.

So, try switching the pop-up relays.

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Think about the thingsthatcan actuate the pop-up motors:

* headlight switch

* manual pop-up switch on side/ top of cluster

* alarm

* flash-to-pass stalk on steering column

 

 

Anychance water got into the interior? Feel the carpet under the driver seat - the ETACS alarm box lives there. Wetness is bad.

 

Not the bug? Pop the hood and unplug the relay next to the brake booster & master cyl to disable flash-to-pass. That might also disable the normal headlight pop-up operation though, it's been a long time since I reviewed the wiring diagram.

 

Just pushing the manual pop-up switch should lock the headlights open.

 

mike c.

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I should be able to make it home before dark. I keep the car in the shop so it hasn't been just sitting in the rain except when I drive it. Thanks for the suggestions, I will let you'all know what the solution is when I fix it.

It actually looks pretty cool winking at you. I Don't think the cops would like it though.

It was nice to analyze the manual so I could see the circuit.

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OK, here is what I have done so far. I replaced the 2 pop-up relays. I have cleaned the thermal fuses. The head lights work now but it has cooled off. They work when it is cold but by the time I get to work , they are warm and quit. I don't know if it is fixed or not until I drive it .

 

When I started to drive home, it decided it wouldn't run slow. 70 mph+ was fine. I made it to the shop and cleaned a bunch of connections and then disconnected the solenoid that ties into the pressure sensor and it sounds great. Idle smoothed out and revs up nice. This may be the sensor Tim said to disconnect, although he called it a "flash to pass" solenoid. I probably disconnected the wrong one but it sounds great. Is it going to do anything bad to run it with this solenoid disconnected. I see on the schematic it ties into the ECU. Is this pressure sensor for the boost gauge in the dash? If it is, I really don't need it as long as the signal isn't necessary for the ECU.

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What year car is this? If you have a solenoid and pressure sensor assembly near the brake master cylinder I'll assume this is a pre-87 style car. That sensor is used for two things: to measure boost pressure and to measure ambient atmospheric pressure. The solenoid switches the sensor input back and forth between those two items every couple of minutes... it spends most of its time with the engine manifold selected and samples ambient air pressure for a few seconds every two minutes or so if I remember correctly. If you disabled that solenoid, then the ECU got engine manifold vacuum/boost pressure as its atmospheric reading or vise-versa. Either way, the ECU has a honked-up input so it's no surprise the fuel computations got screwed up. The ambient atmospheric pressure reading is used by the ECU to estimate the altitude you're driving at. The ECU then uses that info to correct information from the airflow sensor when computing fuel flow.

 

Re-conenct that solenoid as it (and the ECU) have nothing to do with the headlights/pop-ups. Look for a rectangular relay hanging from a single screw stud - that's the flash-to-pass relay, aka "passing relay" in Mitsu's manuals. Pretty much all signals to raise/lower the pop-ups pass through the passing relay so removing it should trap the pop-ups in their current position.

 

Also wiggle fuses #4 and #9 to see if flakey contacts might be confusing the electronics in the passing relay.

 

mike c.

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Sorry, I forgot to say this is a 86 Conquest. The above post described my trip home which developed a second problem which I fixed by changing the pressure solenoid. It fixed the cutting out, missing and popping under 70 mph. However, after changing the pop=up relay,s cleaning the thermo fuses, checking all the little fuses and cleaning the grounds, I still have the problem. I checked my 89 to see what a passing relay looks like and I don't find anything that looks like it on the 86. I only have an 87 and 88 manual so I don't know if it has a passing relay somewhere. I think I will change the pop=up relays again,as maybe the ones I installed have the same problem. I didn't find any grnds. close to the headlights but there must be some there. Did they use the gnds, for the parking/running lights?
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As far as closing the lights. press the off switch in about 1\16 of an inch. If not try a little tiny bit more. See if they close all the way.

The known problem is that there is a little plastic knub that stops the switch in a perticular position. The knub breaks of because 25 plus year old plastic does that. And the lights never c!ose all the way down.

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