Hi, All.

Sorry! I realized I posted this first in the wrong forum!

Hope I'm doing this right ... New Member and all. I'm amazed at the depth of knowledge on these forums and don't know how anyone got good at fixing cars before the internet.

My weird problem is this: On my '96, the Daytime Running Lights are on all the time and the headlights appear to not work at all, hi or low beams. At night I have just barely enough light to drive in the city but would be dangerous on a dark, country road. High beam switch has no effect and the high beam indicator on the dash doesn't come on. Parking light switch works fine.

Now, the windshield wiper interval switch sometimes behaves weird too and i have wondered if it's related but am not quite sure I want to start troubleshooting with that switch.

So, anyone heard of this before?

Thanks, Sturj

 

My first thought would be the multi-function switch in the stalk. Use the 'search' function for 'multi-function switch' (or multifunction switch) and see what hits you get.

 

Yeah, crap!!! That's what I was thinking too but really was hoping it was something else. I've tried to troubleshoot these before in other cars and have never had much luck... seems like there is often no easy way to isolate the switch to suss it out with a voltmeter and they are too expensive to just swap and try a new one. OK, now I know what I'm doing tomorrow. will report back when I've got something to say.

Thanks, rriddle3... nice logo, btw.

 

Electrons are Tricky!

I pulled the bottom of the dash to get to the connectors to the Multi-function switch so I could do some creative jumper-wire work there to make sure the switch was bad before I spent the $200.00 on a new one. Sure enough, bypassing the switch at the connectors with a jumper wire between the supposedly hot (yellow) and the two different contacts for the high and low beams caused the lights to come on. OK this is going to be straightforward and all I have to do is pull the airbag ,steering wheel and a couple covers to get at the switch and replace it. So I do all that, and put the new switch in the column, plug it in and flip the switch... Still; DRL yes, headlights NO!

Man! I hate electric problems!

Ok so now the only thing left to check is the headlights rocker switch on the panel. At this point it's pretty easy to pull the rest of the dash to get at it, so, After doing that I try to make some sense of the 5 wires that go into it with a voltmeter. Sure enough, after determining that it is indeed 12 volts in, 12v out (on two different contacts ) and ground, it was easy to stick a screwdriver across two contacts and the lights worked fine... high, low, parking and hi-beam indicator. Since I knew I wasn't going to get one of those switches at the auto parts store and it looked easy to take apart, I did.

What a STUPID switch on the inside!!! A corrosion magnet!

Anyway, after hitting all the copper with contact cleaner and some 1000 grit emery paper I plugged it back in with the top open and still nothing... Finally realized the one contact I hadn't done was the one on the thermal overload bi-metal strip. (here comes the punchline)

So I broke out my old points file that has been kicking around in my tool box since the last time I used it, twenty years ago, and zip, zap, Bob's your uncle!!!

The lights work's great and I've got a brand new turn signal switch that's like butta!

The Moral of the story? Throw away your money, throw away your time, throw away your youth, but NEVER throw ANY tool away!

P.S. The wipers still behave strange but the rainy season's over. I'll get to those next November.