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One headlight not working...?

hayai32

By hayai32,
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hayai32 Collaborator

hayai32

Posted
Posted

The left low beam light does not work on my 32. It is not intermitent, it just doesn't work. I have changed the bulb so it is not the bulb. I have pulled the switch from the dash and sprayed some contact cleaner in it but this hasn't changed anything... yet.

I've read some other posts on here that say you can clean the connections with sand paper but i can't for the life of me get to the connections to do that.

I took out the thing with the ball bearing and spring in it but I can't take it appart any further. Can it be taken appart any further?

I've also read that it could be a fault in a relay... might be a dumb question but what is a relay?

any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to see if i can do it myself before i call an auto electrician...

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https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/76421-one-headlight-not-working/
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superspit Mentor

superspit

Posted
Posted

hi,....look, I have an R33 with the same issue, now resolved.

In the boot of my car there is a fuse box, with seperate left and right headlight fuses. Guess what I did?

Yep, left lamp fails because left fuse failed!! (in my case anyways)

R32 maybe diff to 33 with respect to fuse box location, but look for this in any car.

Some have seperate fuses for each headlamp, some just the one for both headlamps.

PM me if/when u find the fault?

Mark.

Waldo Proficient

Waldo

Posted
Posted

the same happened to me...my dad is an electrician and we tested everything (the left headlight was gone) fuses, relays switch bulbs, were all perfect, we redone all the connections at the headlights, but it wasnt that either it even wasnt an earthing problem for the left light it turned out to be that the active feed to the light had deteriorated somewhere along the line because of the age and maybe the heat gettin to the loom...so we just ran another wire from the drivers light to the left light....but if you do this make sure you only have one fuse to both headlights if you have a fuse for your left and right headlight (not high beams) the right hand side fuse that you will be using will have to be the next amp rating up from what is in there...

regards luke

Bazelinez Proficient

Bazelinez

Posted
Posted

I think you'll find one or more of the contacts on the switch are gone. Take it apart and you'll see the 3 contacts. They should be the same length but one will be shorter. There's a thread somewhere on here about it.... Just stretch the shorter contact on the spring so its equal to the others and you're done.

Happened on mine and this fixed it. Always seems to be the left headlight too.

good luck.

cowie165 Veteran

cowie165

Posted
Posted

:werd:

Bazelinez is a wise man :thumbsup: Baze even though I said I tried your fix and no joy, after further fiddling, it did turn out to be the cause :(

If you can't juryrig it by stretching the spring, you'll new a new one. $195 from Mr Nissan or $45 from JustJap. Maybe cheaper from one of the guys wrecking an R32?

I never found anything with a ballbearing and spring, but the switch that Bazelinez is talking about is attached to the rotary headlight dial/switch/knob and has three or four tiny screws holding it in behind the dash.

Mark

cowie165 Veteran

cowie165

Posted
Posted

:werd:

Bazelinez is a wise man, heed his words :thumbsup: Baze even though I said I tried your fix and no joy, after further fiddling, it did turn out to be the cause :(

If you can't juryrig it by stretching the spring, you'll need a new one. $195 from Mr Nissan or $45 from JustJap. Maybe cheaper from one of the guys wrecking an R32?

I never found anything with a ballbearing and spring, but the switch that Bazelinez is talking about is attached to the rotary headlight dial/switch/knob and has three or four tiny screws holding it in behind the dash.

Mark

hayai32 Collaborator

hayai32

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Problem solvered...

The ball bearing thing is seated in the spring of the rotary hlight on the far right of the dash. You need to take of a tiny little clip and pull the selector to get at it though.

I still can't see how to take appart the rotary headlight switch to "easily" get at the contacts to clean them but anyways...

After ringing a few autoelectricians they seemed to think that the problem might be with the dipper switch (aka... the indicator stalk where you turn the high beam on and off and indicate etc...) So I took out the dipper switch which takes about 10 mins, took the protective cover off the dipper switch then gave all the contacts a good scrape with the tip of a vsmall screw driver and a spray with crc and now it works good as new.

It seems strange but it does appear that the headlights are also interconnected with the indicator/dipper stalk... Oh well it fixed the problem...

Colin

hayai32 Collaborator

hayai32

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Problem solvered...

The ball bearing thing is seated in the spring of the rotary hlight on the far right of the dash. You need to take of a tiny little clip and pull the selector to get at it though.

I still can't see how to take appart the rotary headlight switch to "easily" get at the contacts to clean them but anyways...

After ringing a few autoelectricians they seemed to think that the problem might be with the dipper switch (aka... the indicator stalk where you turn the high beam on and off and indicate etc...) So I took out the dipper switch which takes about 10 mins, took the protective cover off the dipper switch then gave all the contacts a good scrape with the tip of a vsmall screw driver and a spray with crc and now it works good as new.

It seems strange but it does appear that the headlights are also interconnected with the indicator/dipper stalk... Oh well it fixed the problem...

Colin

flagger Collaborator

flagger

Posted
Posted
If you can't juryrig it by stretching the spring, you'll need a new one. $195 from Mr Nissan or $45 from JustJap. Maybe cheaper from one of the guys wrecking an R32?

Mark

actually mine had the rotary switch problem too. the plastic riser had been melted (prob some high current), so we just replaced it with a chopped off screw. works sweet now

  • 3 years later...
omy-33 Community Regular

omy-33

Posted
Posted
In the boot of my car there is a fuse box, with seperate left and right headlight fuses. Guess what I did?

Yep, left lamp fails because left fuse failed!! (in my case anyways)

i just read that an went down 2 the boot, checked mine an same problem. lmao.

i was wondering why it was playing up.

cheers 4 the advice buddy

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