Its all gone dark !

[Suffolk944]

Driving back from the Essex meet last night I had a problem that has happened before but not for ages.

Had my full beams on, flicked the column stalk to go back onto dipped and ALL the lights went out (including the dash lights). Flicked the stalk again and the full beam returned, but the only way to get the dipped beams and dash back was to lower the headlights and then raise them again.

Bit disconcerting when making determined progress down a pitch black country road...

Any thoughts as to the cause ? Am thinking must be a switch but which one ? Or could it be something else ?

 

[John Sims]

[] That's not good.

As switching off seems to bring them back to normal I'm wondering if it is relay. The 944 isn't blessed with a huge number of relays but I assume there might be one switching between main and dipped beam. I'd look there first.

 

[SteveSJS]

Check the main wiring loom immediately behind the headlights.
It flexes as the lights go up and down, becomes brittle with age and will break if it has not already done so. There are those that have given trouble and those that are going to.

I lost dipped beam on one side only for exactly this reason - the other side went a month later and had to have a piece spliced into that as well.

 

[944cabby]

I had a similar issue the first winter i had my cab.
If i had the heater blower, cd player and lights on, flicking from dip to main would sometimes either stop and restart the cd player or i'de lose all lights for a split second which was scary.The only thing i did was change the original battery for a heavy duty one on advice from a mate (i had no receipt for a previous battery change in the service history).
Hasn't done it since.

 

[jr2015]

Me too, I had to repair the nearside headlamp wiring, problem caused by wires flexing. I dont think that this problem has anything to do with wiring, it`s more likely to be the relay, an old fuse or a switch .
jr

 

[Fred Hindle]

I agree with jr, the raising / lowering of the headlights should not affect the dash lights. Generally one light goes off rather than both.
Points to relays, fuses, wiring. The fuses do have a tendency to loose contact sometimes so maybe worth removing each fuse and cleaning the ends lightly.
Cheers,

 

[cococola]

I say relay![]