1983 S3 UK Spec TE, headlights cannot be switched off after drive

[Rolf 26]

Hi folks,

 

Sudden failure yesterday evening.

 

At first sight while opening the garage door with engine running and lights on I thought I have only lost the outer beam on the right side, wondering that it seems to still gleam a tiny little bit.

 

Inside the garage with engine stopped I switched off the lights but nearly nothing happended.

Both pods did not move. Left side both lamps still lightened.

Only change was that the right side lamps both were only gleaming now and the stack ligths went off.

 

Any thoughts were to start?

Until now everything worked fine.

 

Best regards,

Rolf

 

 

[Andyww 1,289]

Not sure of your description, you mention left lamps are lighting and right are gleaming? What is the difference?

 

What are "stack lights"?

 

There are 2 circuits to the headlamps, one is the main circuit from the binnacle switch and one is the flash circuit from the column switch. What happens on the rear lights, are they also stuck on or go off?

 

One possibility is the column switch is stuck in the "headlamp flash" position.

[Rolf 26]

Sorry if something is misleading, next try to clarify: 

Lighting is full bright, gleaming is nearly dark unit but a little orange dim light, so lamp is not dead but gets only low voltage/current

stack lights should mean instrument illumination in the interior

 

column "flash" switch is in off position, still has some function wenn pulling or pushing, then the inner right headlamp comes allive again

 

rear lights I have not checked, will have a look this evening

 

[Trevsked 770]

Pretty sure it will be the earth. The main earth in the front compartment is on the boot floor on the left hand side, lots of black withes going to it. If you clean this up it should sort your problem. If not then an earth elsewhere.

Trevor.

[molemot 521]

Agree that It'll be an earthing problem. The headlamps are wired earths and I'd look for corrosion and broken wires. What you have probably got is a defective earthg somewhere and the system is then getting a current flow through the other lamps to ground...gives all sorts of weird things!

[Rolf 26]

Thanks for the hint with the earthing, will clean the grounding point connectors on the boot floor and see if that's it.

[Rolf 26]

Thank you all for your help and pointing into the earthing direction!

 

It turned out to be a broken ground wire to the right light pod just where the wire leaves the pod.

I spent some time cleaning earthing points, ordering relais etc. without success. A voltmeter and the Lucas fault searching script finally did the trick. It pointed me as a total unexperienced car electricity novice in the right direction 

[molemot 521]

Well done Rolf!! Got to keep the really rare ones on the road...these sort of electrical faults can be truly frustrating. Always a triumph when you find the solution...which is usually something simple!!

[Rolf 26]

Thanks John. Yep, I was very proud to find that little bugger with some help of you guys.

 

That was an entertaining story for me. If I remember correctly, your `82 Esprit has the version with the 4 dip plus 4 main beams and I always wondered, why mine has not the same setup being an early `83 car. While investigating the cables, I found a blanked off dip beam wire in every pod and that the inner main beam headlamps had still the sticker on it with "Made in Belgium 1992". Looks like the PO did a change to Cibie in the 90s.

[cbclotus 521]

Hi Rolf glad you fixed the problem .Great car you have there .....Mike

[molemot 521]

Mine's been modified a bit further now, Rolf....I have two RH dip and two LH dip headlights, depending on which side of the channel I'm on! Next thing is to arrange to be able to have all the beams on at once.....(!) That'll need relays and probably a more powerful alternator, too.....