still got my headlight problem ( one dim, one bright ), the other day my lights were coming on by themselves! any ideas?? im starting to go crazy!

Hi Nick,

I've just had a quick look back through your previous posts, and think it might be a good idea to tell us what you have and have not done yet, and if you have any further symptons etc!

One way or another we'll get to the bottom of it and sort it for you.

So just type down all you know :D

still got my headlight problem ( one dim, one bright ), the other day my lights were coming on by themselves! any ideas?? im starting to go crazy!

 

Mine is coming on on its own, so for the time being i took out the relay, and am going to replace with new come payday an see if that sorts it out

ok here goes, i hope all this will kinda make sense, a few weeks ago i had a flat battery as my lights came on by themselves! when i first got the car ( in september ) i noticed that in the morning when i turned my lights on, the drivers side would be dim, but after a few minutes it would kick in and be fine, now its always dim, the N/S round light is on bright, the O/S square lamp is dim and the O/S round and N/S square lamp are slightly glowing, ( all side lights are fine )!. i checked the obvious such as bulbs and fuses which were fine, had my relays checked at work and im told they are fine too! we thought it could be an earth, when i put an earth wire to the O/S square lamp it made it go out and the N/S square lamp came on really bright! the other day when i was at work, my lights decided to come on by themselves again, and they kept going on and off so i had to pull the relays out! after work we took it into the workshop so one of the engineers could look at it, after fiddling with everything ( wires, relays, bulbs, swapping things around etc ) there was no change, we were about to give up when suddenly while the car was running and the lights were on, they went back to normal ( both round lights on and square lights out ) only thing that wasnt right was that when you flashed it, the O/S was still dim! however the next day it was back to how it was! im not sure if i need an electrician or a priest!

It definitely sounds like an earth problem, have you tried placing an earth on each set of headlights?

It might be worth replacing all 3 relays either new, or second hand to try, as although the relays may test good with a meter, there may be a problem when the correct voltage goes through them whilst in the car.

havent tried that mate, ideally i would like to try some other relays before i buy some just to be sure, but i dont know of anyone around here with a 300zx, my mate has a 200sx, would the relays be the same?

from your description i would suggest that the off side relay isnt supplying voltage to the lights.this could cause the bright dim combination and the changes when you added an earth

cause of this could be: fuse supplying relay, relay, socket relay plugs in to, wires from back of fuse holder, connectors at lamp.

if you vave a voltmeter check the voltage at all these places

 

however i'm not sure how this would make the lights come on by themselves with out a second fault, either the light switch, flashing stalk or the other relay. maybe worth disconnecting all the lights and measuring voltage to each light

when you say you checked fuses, there are 3 relevant fuses, one for each headlamp relay and one that supplies the switches

 

thinking further an intermitent short to chassis (due to snaged or melted insulation) of the wire from the light switch to the near side headlight relay would cause all the symptoms you have described