Full-beam headlights

Y

yelloSC

New Member
Both the full-beam and headlight flash has failed on my 2200. It's not the fuses, and when switched to full beam the normal dip-beam filaments go out as you would expect. It happened suddenely - I was driving along a couple of nights ago, full-beam on, went to dip-beam as oncoming car came, then went back to full-beam but instead got total darkness as I hurtled along a country lane! I'm assuming it must be the column switch, but I haven't had a chance to get the steering wheel off yet to check it properly. Are there any other common failings on the P6 that could cause this apart from the column switch?
 
I had this a while ago - The dipped worked fine but all failed when on high beam - In my case it was cured by fitting a slightly higher rated fuse.
 
The column switch can be a weak point as it controls the full power of the headlamps and not relays.
When it happened to one of my 3500 models it turned out to be the column switch.
Regards, John.
 
It was the column switch on mine as well. If you pulled back to flash the main beam, they would work, but pushing the switch up would result in total darkness! I too had mine fail whilst bombing down a country lane! ???
 
Yep, ring another one up to the column switch. Happened to me a couple of years whilst doing all the pre-MOT checks.

Happy at my quick resolution of the problem a trip to the breakers yielded a nicer column (better chrome) and switch. However, I couldn't get the column nacelle back together, the plastic was warped and no amount of cajoling can get the two parts back together.

To get the steering wheel off I found some very handy right-angled screwdrivers in Halfords which made very short work of getting the backplate off.
 
My flashers now dont work - did they ever? Cant remember. Everything else works as it should, just no flashing - so fuses are OK....burnt contacts ?
 
I did think that, but it was in the 'Full-beam headlights' thread so got confused :hmm:
 
Hi, There are effectively two switches, one is a change over switch fed from the light switchthe other is fed by battery power which then go to the appropriate fuses. So as you say it could be corroded contact or it's lost its battery feed, which is the Brown/White wire.

Colin
 
Looks like power in on B/N wire, out on Blue/W, so i will check the B/N first, before dismantling anything.....It seems to come direct from the shunt, so hopefully that connection hasnt come adrift.
 
The power comes directly from the shunt to the flasher switch, then down to the fuses and out to the lights, that is according to the wiring diagram on my car.

One possibility is the fuse box. When the full beam is on, the power comes down one of the brown wires into the side of the fuse, then across the end of the fuse into the centre piece, then into the top of the other fuse. When you operate the flash, the power comes down from the flash switch into the other side of the pic below. If the connection here hasn't been used for a while it can fail, even though it looks ok.

Best way to check this is to pop these fuses out, then check the outer spade with the full beam on, then again with the flash operated.

fuse holder.jpg

IMG_6146.JPG
 
thanks , will check there first.
First pulll of the flasher arm today - brief movement of the ammeter,high beam idicator.... then nothing. Have 12V at the B/N wire,on the switch side of the connector - does that mean anything?
Update - tried fuse 11-12, no help, but cleaning and reseating 13-14 has fixed the problem. the base between 11 and 13 has been melted a bit and distorted by heat in the past. The fact that both beams operated properly from the normal switch means that the fuses were ok, and even if the interconnect from 11 to 13 was bad, at least one beam should have worked from the flash switch? Headlights have been relayed for sometimenow,but have had very little use.
 
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