Douglas Brown

So what now with this old car? Last night on the way home I turned on the high beam lights, great they worked.....BUT..then they blinked??? off & on, twice. I went back to low beam, waited, they did not blink, back to high beam, waited and yep they blinked again, again back to low, ask the wife to look and tell me if I was seeing thing's, nope, they went off & on.
It is new harness from Lectric limited. Lights going bad??? a Relay???

It's like the heat up and go out, then on, then off,

What do you think???

speedreed8

theandies

There is a thermal circuit breaker in the headlight switch that will cause this when too much current flows through the switch causing your flashing headlights. Too much current heats up a metal tang with contacts on it and deflects because of the heat. This deflection causes the contacts to open and that stops the current from flowing through the circuit. This self-resets when the metal tang cools off and makes the contacts again turning the lights back on. Once the lights are back on the cycle starts over hence your blinking headlights.
Did you recently change your headlight bulbs? If you put high wattage halogen bulbs in this will happen. You either have to change the headlight switch out, which is a crap-shoot if you get a good Chinese one, or install headlight relays that take the high current situation you're experiencing out of the headlight switch. There are plenty of headlight relay threads out there to search through.
Please be careful as this could be a fire hazard. Personally I would not run my high beams until it's fixed.

Street Rat

Have you changed to Halogen bulbs lately?

This will certainly overload the headlight switch.

I agree with the other posters. You need a switch.

Douglas Brown

Well, I did not expect there to be a circuit breaker in the switch. But that is how it acts.
Note: The wife said she thought one headlight bulb looked dimmer than the others. Would a dim head light cause an over heat issue for the rest of them and cause it to blink???
I know there no grantee new electrical is good, the sw is new, it was the first night drive since registration. I do not think I changed out the bulbs for Halogen, but I'll check .

THANKS

DB

DUB

A bulb that is looking 'dimmer' is telling me that you do not have a good connection or a weak ground to that bulb.

I have changed cars out to halogen bulbs and have any problems....not that that means anything.

DUB

Douglas Brown

OK..I'll check that out....

Electrical harness in bumper to bumper new, Lectric limited from CA.

Headlights are Wagner 2C1 sealed beam new wal mart

HL switch new. CA

and Just because: Alt. is a 140 AMP.

Thanks for the info.


DB

Richard454

Exactly- IF the halogens are 55/60W (watts) like the original bulbs they will pull the SAME current as the originals.

Now if you've upped the bulbs to say 80/100W- then they will pull MORE current.



As Dub said- check the ground. No ground on the bulb and it finds a ground through the filament.

Try disconnecting the low bulb on the side (pass or driver) that 'looks' dimmer- and see what happens. If the High goes out- there's no ground on that side.

DO NOT discount that the headlight switch is new... the circuit breaker might be not to the correct rating also causing your issue- I've seen this a lot.

Richard

Douglas Brown

Good info thanks.

I plan to pull that light today, will post results.

DB

Well..Removed low beam lights. When I originally replaced them I did not pay attention to the metal/cradle, light holder, not did I notice the way the notches in the holder were positioned and how the lights set in them. So I found where the light bulbs set 90 deg. off of where they should be. the tabs on the light that set in the notches when lined up have the beam of light vertical to the road.
The high beams are fitted correct.
So either the lights are made wrong or the cradle is wrong or I bought the wrong stuff???? Will go look at some lights.
these are Wagner H5006 DOT 12V 02 13

OH ..yea ..the high beam light did not blink with these lights unplugged.

Checked light bulbs, same..cradle is wrong.

DUB

Just because a person has halogens does not mean that they draw more amps.

'Douglas Brown'

Each one of the headlight capsule buckets are unique. They are made specifically to go into a specific are on the headlight assembles and hold a specific bulb.

Obviously...the outer capsule assemblies are the low beam and the inner are high beam.

If this problem persists...and you just get sick and tired of it....I am sure you are aware that installing relays will stop this problem.

DUB

Street Rat

My halogens were 5000 and 5001 bulbs. Don't know what they pull as far as watts. I do know that the addition of those bulbs produced a situation that did cut the lights off and on.

theandies

As far as the thermal circuit breaker in the switch is concerned I went through three crap units made in China (yes from the good reputable vendors) and had this problem with each switch. My original switch didn't have this issue even with halogen lamps at all four locations.
I ended up taking my old switch and one of the new ones apart and used the original body with the dimmer rheostat of the new switch which was the reason why I was changing the switch in the first place.
After getting it to work good I installed headlight relays and now my halogens work great, I don't have the high current situation through my switch and my lights are a lot brighter. I feel a lot better now that the high current is going through my relays and upgraded power wires and grounds to the bulbs.

Douglas Brown

I remember installing them according to the instructions, "A" goes here, "B" goes there etc. ALL the wire connections that plug onto the back of the bulbs are three pronged for Low & High beam operation.
{what I am sick and tired of, is parts not fitting, when ordered and have to adjust} anyway I just reconnected the light bulbs to see if they would blink......they did...so I unplugged one light the blinking stopped.
SOOOO..it is a wattage draw issue.

Douglas Brown

Yes I have been considering that option.

Douglas Brown

I have looked and cannot find a wattage any where on the bulb.

The web tells me the wattage = 35/35 for this bulb. Volts= 12.8/12.8 Amps =2.73/2.73
This puts it well below the 50/60 mentioned before.
which brings us around to the switch.

Douglas Brown

were different bulbs used for low beam? I mean for the back of the bulb to not fit the indents that hold it in place to be off by an 1' or so. I guess they just sent me the wrong ones???

Douglas Brown

YES..and it dose not seem to be any other way. All other solutions lead back to the switch and the same problem.

Douglas Brown

Spoke with Lectric Limited today, I am told the switch is doing what is suppose to do, because there is: either a bad ground or too many amp being drawn with all the lights on.

That headlight switch breaker is set for 15 amps, but could lower.

I have cleaned grounds in two places, no effect.

unable to test amps drawn at this time.(No tester)

It probably does not matter, the switch breaker is blinking.

I'll look for a relay site to see who to install.

speedreed8

Street Rat

I purchased some relays and wired them in to the headlight circuit. It worked great. Later I upgraded to Speed Direct's Nevernight harness and new high watt halogen bulbs. I've really seen a difference with each progressive upgrade.

Good luck on your installation.