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Problem with head lights 

 

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 Post subject: Problem with head lights
Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:05 pm 
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Hello,

Having a problem with high beam on my ELGT.

when you are cruising down the road on high beam, it will all of a sudden drop out then back in then back out and just flicker on and off untill you put it back on low beam.

I have done a bit of investigating, and long story short when it is happening the power wire to the relays looses power. on the wiring diagrams there is an apparent 30a "circuit breaker" for the head lamp relays but I cannot seem to locate it anywhere.

has anyone heard of this happening and or does anyone know where this 30a C/B is for the head lamp relays?
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:15 pm 
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To be honest, it just sounds like a bad connection. Perhaps check the plug on the back of the headlight then the fuse holder connections then work your way back from there.

 

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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:20 pm 
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I dont think its a bad connection,

its more like and overloading thing, all 6 highbeams drop off and the headlights are obviously after the relays, both relays are fed by the same power circuit and when you flick it back to low beam low beam comes on, obviously not drawing as much.

so what I am realy looking foris this 30a circuit breaker, which feeds the relays
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:41 pm 
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jeffb wrote:
so what I am realy looking foris this 30a circuit breaker, which feeds the relays
Have a bo peep under the coolant overflow reservoir.

 

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 Post subject: Head lights
Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:41 pm 
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Had the same trouble with my efxr8 when i replaced the bulbs with bigger ones.Replaced the circuit breaker to a bigger amperage.The circuit breaker was located under the coolant overflow bottle Jeff.Yours should be in the same spot.

 

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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:10 pm 
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thanks guys i shall investigate
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:14 pm 
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just out of curiousity, what wattage are the bulbs?

 

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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:50 pm 
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Correct me if i'm wrong, but they should be no more than 65W? Anymore and it starts breaking down/meltig the plastic lenses

 

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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:04 pm 
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I misread the initial post. I thought it was mentioning one headlight cutting in and out.

 

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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:10 pm 
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I recently had problems with my high beams, they started out just flickering, or cutting out when I would go over a bump in the road, and ended up not working at all.

I took it to one place who said it was the switch stalk that was causing the problem.

When I was in getting some other work done with a different place, they found 2 faulty relays. High Beams work fine now.

 

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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:52 pm 
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Andrew J wrote:
Correct me if i'm wrong, but they should be no more than 65W? Anymore and it starts breaking down/meltig the plastic lenses

doesnt necessarily mean a lot..... never stopped people putting bigger bulbs in

 

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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:18 am 
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I know EXACTLY what ur talking about. I doubt its a loose wire.

Sinec i finished my conversion, ive hooked up my XR8 lights (XF - so XF style lights) to EL loom. When i got to high beam they do exactly as u described. I doubt very much its my wiring, as all connection were soldered/heatshrunk. And the problem is very random, but once going from low to high beams it will start flickering within a minute....until i go back to low beams.

I havent had a chance 2 look properly yet, but i have a feeling the lights are trying to draw too much current. I can hear the relays going nuts when it happens. Is there a safety cutout thing built in?
my battery is in the boot, also running a big stereo, but even when thats off it still does it.

Maybe it can't draw enough current from the boot, then it cant stay constanly on - and lights flicker? due to relay?? i dont know.. anyone have any other suggestions or encounted this? i thought i was the only one!

 

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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:44 am 
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ther eis a little metal circuit breaker / fuse tyoe thing with the relays under/behind the overflow bottle. that sounds like the one your talking about, wether thats the problem or nit i dont know

ford number XC 11N646 A

 

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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:45 am 
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I've had the same problem with my headlights on 2 of my EB's and my EL. All 3 times it was that Circuit Breaker you spoke of.

 

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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:07 am 
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xf84 wrote:
I know EXACTLY what ur talking about. I doubt its a loose wire.

Sinec i finished my conversion, ive hooked up my XR8 lights (XF - so XF style lights) to EL loom. When i got to high beam they do exactly as u described. I doubt very much its my wiring, as all connection were soldered/heatshrunk. And the problem is very random, but once going from low to high beams it will start flickering within a minute....until i go back to low beams.

I havent had a chance 2 look properly yet, but i have a feeling the lights are trying to draw too much current. I can hear the relays going nuts when it happens. Is there a safety cutout thing built in?
my battery is in the boot, also running a big stereo, but even when thats off it still does it.

Maybe it can't draw enough current from the boot, then it cant stay constanly on - and lights flicker? due to relay?? i dont know.. anyone have any other suggestions or encounted this? i thought i was the only one!

I think you'll find in most of these cases that you need to establish your total power of your lights on high beam - once you know that you can tell whether the cct breaker is faulty, or your lights draw too much power for the cct breaker to handle (particularly if you've replaced the std globes with higher power aftermarket).
If you've found your light capacity to be lower than the cct breaker rating, then you can test the circuit breaker by shorting it out - if flickering disappears, then the cct breaker is the culprit. Do this test on twilight, use a quiet back road, and if you blow the IGN fusible link (60A) by some chance, have a spare, or use the FAN fusible link (60A) to get you home. Obviously if the fusible link has blown your lights must have a short. Be wise to do a quick meter check on the high beam to make sure there's no obvious short circuit to begin with.

You'll find if your light capacity is fine that the cct breaker is probably on the way out, doesn't help having it under the coolant overflow, particularly if it's been subject to water leaks, etc.

 

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