SHAMUS'WAGON Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 O.K. A few nights ago I was getting ready to leave work. I start my car, let it warm up a minute or two, and go to turn on my headlights. The little blue "high beam indicator" underneath the speedo is dimly glowing, my High Beams are on dim also, and my Low beams are dim. I have had a busted turn signal switch in the car for the past 2-3 years. So, I start playing around with the switch. after about 5 minutes of messing with it. the Indicator turns off and my headlights are fine. Well it's gotten worse. Last night I sat in the parking lot at work for a half an hour taking the column apart and the steering wheel off. Trying to get the headlights on normally because of this problem, but nothing I do seems to change anything. It seems like an intermittent short to ground, but I don't know where to start looking. I have played with all the wires going to the switch, and followed them down the column with the wiggle test. It doesn't seem to do anything. Tonight I had to drive all the way home with the problem persisting. Then when I got home i started to get out of the car to check my headlights, and everything was back to normal. I know this has run kind of long, but I wanted to thoroughly explain the problem. So if anyone has had this problem in the past. Please HELP! Quote Link to comment
SHAMUS'WAGON Posted April 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 Sorry I forgot to mention that the indicator is not fully illuminated. When I take the busted piece of what used to be the High beam switch and ground it. It lights up all the way and engages the High beam lamps. So.....WTF Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 Your dimmer switch on the turn signal lever does not handle headlight current. It just grounds, or ungrounds a relay coil, and the relay does the actual switching of the lights from high beam to low beam. Power for the headlights follows this path. Battery, two fuses, common terminal on headlights the the right, and left side of the car. All four main beam lights are them all combined, and go to the headlight relay. The two low beam lights are combined, and go to another terminal on the headlight relay. The other side of the switching contacts on the relay go to the headlight switch, and after the headlight switch, the power is then grounded. Quote Link to comment
SHAMUS'WAGON Posted April 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 Your dimmer switch on the turn signal lever does not handle headlight current. It just grounds, or ungrounds a relay coil, and the relay does the actual switching of the lights from high beam to low beam. Power for the headlights follows this path. Battery, two fuses, common terminal on headlights the the right, and left side of the car. All four main beam lights are them all combined, and go to the headlight relay. The two low beam lights are combined, and go to another terminal on the headlight relay. The other side of the switching contacts on the relay go to the headlight switch, and after the headlight switch, the power is then grounded. So, what your telling me is that my problem is more likely to be with the switch or the relay? I believe that the headlight relay is on of the ones on the right fender, but witch one is it? Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 I do not have a 510, but I worked on one a little, with headlights problems. I think it is a relay with six pins on it, I think it is near the firewall, above the starter, assuming you still have a four cylinder L-motor in your car. Look for a relay with fairly heavy wires, I think the wagon I looked at used red wires with white stripe, and red wires with a black stripe, for the connection between the headlights and the relay, and red wires whit a yellow stripe from the relay to the light switch. the ground wire from the light switch is black. Quote Link to comment
Skib Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 I have had a busted turn signal switch in the car for the past 2-3 years. its about time you fixed that. Quote Link to comment
SHAMUS'WAGON Posted April 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 its about time you fixed that. Yeah, Hopefully rzrdisco still has his for sale. Don't want to have him ship it since I'm moving soon. Blinkers still work if I stick my finger inside what's left of the turn signal switch. Quote Link to comment
hang_510 Posted April 13, 2010 Report Share Posted April 13, 2010 its about time you fixed that. :lol: :unsure: :rofl: i should have a wagon switch... Quote Link to comment
SHAMUS'WAGON Posted April 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2010 I've narrowed the possibilities down to the fuse box. Using the highly technical method of wiggling connections. It looks like the short is somewhere in the circuit marked "Light L.". Really don't have the time right now to pull all of that apart. So I'll just deal with it as needed until after we move to Vancouver. Quote Link to comment
Loren Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 the "stalk" of my turn signal switch started sticking yesterday,and fell off in my lap today. is there any way to replace just the "stalk" itself? Quote Link to comment
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