Weird Headlight Issue?

[SimonTuffGuy]

Hmmm... Noticed a slightly problem over the past 3 days... Once while driving home on the highway and merging in front of a truck, once while driving up the street to my house, and lastly was last night pulling into my girlfriends house to park.

My headlights just blank out for a split second (enough to realize they're off) and then pop back on.

I checked the connection at the switch at the column and it's tight. Possible relay problem?

[FestYboy]

yes, you're either loosing ground to the relay or loosing power to the relay (both on the "small" side a.k.a low current side)

[packrat427]

Simon are you by chance running a high wattage bulb ?

I know the Festivas need all the lighting they can get .

[AirForceJeff]

My headlights were doing the same thing, also a couple times when switching from bright back down to dim they don't come back on. And now my lights wont come on at all on dim, but do come on in bright. It's a 1993 GL, automatic.

What was your fix, or am I looking at a different problem?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

[festyfanatic]

Could it be a bulb that is going bad???

[AirForceJeff]

I doubt it, both bulbs do it, and they work just fine in bright.

[TominMO]

Hmmm... Noticed a slightly problem over the past 3 days... Once while driving home on the highway and merging in front of a truck, once while driving up the street to my house, and lastly was last night pulling into my girlfriends house to park.

My headlights just blank out for a split second (enough to realize they're off) and then pop back on.

I checked the connection at the switch at the column and it's tight. Possible relay problem?

This happened to me once when driving Casper back from PA. Glad to know what the fix is.

[Pu241]

Looking over the electrical diagrams, I don't see how the relay could be bad and still give power to HI, but not LO beam.
I'm betting on a bad switch or lost ground on the LO side.
If I'm interpreting the diagram correctly, and I might not be, the HI beams have a separate ground.

[Britstiva]

I had the same problem with my Aspire. Turned out there was a short inside the switch where the headlights are changed from high to low beams. (and vise versa)

I cut that part out of my switch and spliced in a donor from another signal switch I had.

There is this little button that gets pressed inward when the lights are on low. That button had worn out and was "wobbly" causing the lights to flicker and turn off.

My connections were tight. It wasn't until I start taking it apart that I realized my problem.

But mine mostly did this when I turned on the signal switch.

[Pu241]

jermnc77,
You have no idea how much this hurts me.
But have to give credit where credit is due.
Good job!
I don't think its a short otherwise you'd have blown a fuse/burned some wires.
But I do think it could well be the source of the headlight issue.

AirForceJeff, you have another switch to swap over?

[AirForceJeff]

pu241, I agree with your thoughts from the wiring diagram, the relay give power to the switch and then the switch decides which direction the power goes, so I'm thinking that is most likely my culprit.

My current plan is to buy a new headlight switch and change it out this weekend.

Jeff

[Pu241]

Can you get a new headlight switch or do you just mean another known good switch?

[AirForceJeff]

jermnc77, Is the headlight switch in the column and one big assembly with the wiper switches too, or is this something I'm going to be able to change out easily?

[Britstiva]

Pu241: Thanks for the compliment! LOL ... I think.

Jeff, remember now... all of this was from my Aspire. So things may be slightly different on the Festiva. This would be an excellent opportunity to take pics of your progress and show us what you see.

First, disconnect the battery. Then, take off the steering wheel. Then you'll see the switch assembly. On the left is the headlight arm and the right is the wipers arm. These switches are a bit overlapped. The headlight switch arm was on top of the wiper arm. So removing it was did not affect the wiper arm at all. But you had to remove both to do the following....

Remove this assembly. On my Aspire, there were 3 or 4 screws that held it to the column. They were very easy to see.

Now, down the column will be a big fat plug. Mine was yellow, not sure on the Festiva.

Unplug this and cut the zip ties that hold it to the column. This will let the wires come free from the column and disconnect the electricals for the headlights. wiper switches and emergency flasher switch.

Remove the headlight/wiper arm switch combo.

On that the light arm you will see where the arm pivots forward and backward to dim and brighten your lights.

Flip it over, you will see where a plastic box covers the little button that the headlight arm pushes in to dim your lights. There may be several plastic connectors that keeps the cover over this button.

Take a small tip screw driver and pry open this plastic cover. This will release button box and you will be able to remove it.

Make sure your wires are the same from your donor. Cut and splice the donor in place and reassemble in reverse. I used inline crimp connectors to keep the bulk down on the column.

Here are the pics of mine... but remember, the Aspire has airbags. So this may look slightly different on the Festiva.

Special note only for Aspires:
And if anyone reads this and uses this info for their Aspire, remember you have to remove the set spring before you can see the switches mentioned above. And you can't let the set spring move. So place several peices of tape over it before you remove it from the column. If you let it move, you will have to reset it carefully.... and it may break. So use tape first!!


Now pics:


Front: (Note: the white thingy there in the middle is what held the set spring assembly for the airbag component.)


Back: (the big empty spot is where the button is located, removed here in this pic)


Here is where the plastic box cover was covering the button. You can see the hole where the switch arm presses in this button to dim/brighten your lights. This was part of the problem in my old switch. (There may have been screws holding this button to the arm assembly. I can't remember exactly)


Notice the wires running to the switch to turn on the headlights is still intact. I only had to cut the wires running to this "button box". Once you pry off the cover, you'll see what I"m talking about.

Test your connections before you reassemble the steering column!

I hope this helps!!

[sanjeet]

My New Zealand assembled Festy had a similar fault and I traced it to the brown fuseable link in the engine bay, there are two main links and the brown one carries the head light circuit....the problem I had was corrosion in the terminal block which I have cleaned and no problems for the past 2 years

Tena koe from Aotearoa