Headlight problems Options

[mburkhart]

My headlights have a bad habit of going dark randomly. When I pull out the headlight switch, the lights will pop up - sometimes taking a second or two. The lights may or may not turn on. If the lights turn on, after a few seconds or minutes they will go out. Turning on the high beams will sometimes get the lights back on. Sometimes they come back on themselves after a few minutes or seconds. Repeat.

Any ideas? If your answer is a bad ground, please tell me where I can find the grounds related to the headlights!

[mburkhart]

I found my old switch, but I guess I forgot what a production it was to get behind the dash. It may be a while before I have time to swap out the switch.

[mburkhart]

So I finally had an afternoon to take apart the dash and I swapped in the other "old" headlight switch I had. It was worse than the "new" one - the headlights would pop up but would not light. The "new" switch would at least turn on the lights sporadically.

I decided to take apart the "old" switch to see if there was anything obviously wrong with it. Aside from being caked with old grease it seems fine. Some of the contacts were black with dirt and grease, maybe that's preventing the contacts from touching? I cleaned it up with contact cleaner and fresh dielectric grease and reassembled it. I'll try to install it in the next few days...

[mburkhart]

Well the cleaned up "old" switch still does not work (lights don't pop up or turn on).

I took it apart again and had a close look at the contacts. Some of the nubs have been worn down flat and probably are not making any contact. To really fix it I need more donor parts, so I'm going to think about dissassembling my "new" switch and see if I have enough good parts for one working switch.

I know I can probably buy another used switch that works but it'd just be a matter of time before it fails too. I think I'm going to perform the fog light hack while I'm behind the dash so that I can at least have some lights working if my headlights ever go out on me again. It's not fun driving at night and having all your lights go out at the same time. It's actually kind of terrifying on a dark road where I was when it happened to me!