Corona Lights : No low beam

[Bitsa]

G'day

I've just installed a voltmeter into a 22re 86 Corona wagon. It works well as far as I can tell, but, now my lights have no low beam.

All was well in the headlight department before I put this voltmeter in.

Closest I came to any headlight wires was when I hooked a wire into an ignition wire on the steering column. Have checked everything and am convinced I haven't touched any head light wires.

Scenario: High beam ok, driving lights ok, no low beam.

When I turn the light switch on, not only do I have no low beam, for some reason the high beam indicator comes on. It's all a bit of a mystery.


Any help appreciated,

Trevor

[smiley_666]

could it be a blown globe? in my escort (not toyota though) one low beam filament blew and both went out. worth checking anyway
(it was quite annoying driving with only parkers or high beams)

[Bitsa]

Thanks mate. Have checked the bulbs and that's not the problem.

When I put the voltmeter in I had to disconnect the negative battery terminal a few times. I've a feeling that this has somehow tripped the headlight curcuit breaker i.e. when I turn the light switch on there's an audible click coming from the fuse box under the bonnet. I've never noticed such a loud click before.

If the curcuit breaker is the problem, I've no idea how to reset it. I've taken it out then put it back in, in the hope that that is all I needed to do. No difference. Still no low beam.

Anyone know how to reset these things ?

[wilbo666]

Anyone know how to reset these things ?

03 Electrical Components with questions.pdf file size 517KB

Taken from the above:


Cheers
Wilbo

[Bitsa]

Cheers Wilbo.

[Dazza]

Try hooking the voltmeter up directly to the battery. It could be upsetting your reverse polarity relay somehow by earthing something that is supposed to be positive.

[Bitsa]

Still no low beam. Turns out the thing I thought was a circuit breaker is in fact a headlamp relay. If all else fails I'll get another headlamp relay tomorrow and see what happens.

Try hooking the voltmeter up directly to the battery.

Does that mean instead of running the voltmeters power wire to the ignition on the steering column, run the wire straight to the battery instead ?

[Dazza]

Yes i did mean to run the power wire straight to the battery and the earth as well just as a temporary thing to see if it fixes your low beam problem. You might have to connect the power to your acc wire somewhere instead of ign so your gauge will turn off with the ignition switch and make sure your earth wire is earthed to your firewall and not to an earth wire in the steering column or dash.

[Bitsa]

Dazza thanks for the information. I did all of the above and more today but still got no low beam. Was hoping the voltmeter wiring was the problem but maybe it's just a coincidence i.e. install voltmeter low beam disappears though I'm still not convinced installing the voltmeter had nothing to do with it.

A trip to the auto electrician beckons.

[madmont]

Sounds like you have cut the wire between the low beam switch and the high beam indicator or your switch is broken. The headlight relay supplies 12v to the headlights and the high/low switch earths either the high beam or the low beam. When high beam is selected 12v runs through the low beam filament and the low beam wire back to the high beam indicator lamp which is earthed on the other side and the lamp lights up. At least that is how it works on my Toyotas

[Bitsa]

Thanks for that madmont though you've confused me somewhat, but, that's nothing unusual for me when it comes to cars.

The only wire I cut into that might have caused this problem I've checked and rechecked to the point of unhooking the voltmeter completely i.e. putting things back to the way they were before the install, but still no low beam.

The switch you talk about that may be broken, where is that?

[madmont]

If the high beam warning light comes on this means your earth for low beam does not exist. You either have a break in the wiring from the high/low beam switch or the switch you use to change from low to high beam is broken

[Bitsa]

If the high beam warning light comes on this means your earth for low beam does not exist.

Ok. I can understand that. Much appreciated. It's booked in to the auto electricians this friday so I've two days to attempt to fix it myself thus saving some of my hard earned.

Thanks again for your help.

[Bitsa]

A little update as I'm only a day away from the auto electrician and madmont or anyone else who may know what's happening here your input would be greatly appreciated, not to mention my wallet would be thankful.

Took off the steering wheel.

When I took out the 4 screws that holds the plastic thing that holds the light switch, blinker stem, wipers etc, the low beam worked. While there were no screws holding it in, everything worked.

When I screwed just one screw back in, the low beam didn't work.

This would mean what exactly ?

Dirty something ?

[madmont]

sounds like you have something amiss there a bit hard to help any further but at least you know roughly where the problem is