hi All,
Gota problem but not sure what the solution can be! The car is a station wagon, '87, the driver side headlights are out, no low and high beam. It is not the bulb cause i installed a new one and also tested the contacts on them too just in case i got a reject one. Sometime the it comes "on" and some time it does'nt. any clues? I was thinking that it can be the contacts at the switch unit. i was also thinking about tieing the driver side headlight to the passager side to resolve this issue, any comment on this? not sure if there will be a ampage problem for the wiring.
TIA
Jack

 

Classic sign of the headlight combo switch starting to go out...replace it before more lighting starts to die off. A new replacement with a LT waranty will run you about $120, but that's for the complete combo unit - both sides...

 

my peaceful suggestion, it could also be the headlight sensor. does the "burned out headlight" idiot light come on? I think the 87s had that feature. I've heard of the stop and tail sensors going bad and the tail lights would stop working.

I've also heard of guys in the forum wiring the headlights through a relay so that the switch doesn't carry full current from the headlights. that may be a temporary fix. you probably have about 15 amps running through that headlight switch, and on those small contacts, that's a lot of heat. your same problem happened to me but the problem was actually in the plastic connector that goes on the headlight, it melted completely.


Dan

 

and I wouldn't recommend tying the bad side in with the good headlight. here's why. (1) you don't wanna overload any wiring. I believe each side has its own separete fuse, but I may be wrong. (2) if you indeed have that headlight sensor, it's meant to monitor each side separately. and if you put both lights on one side, it could either indicate a problem, not let enough current through and make your headlights dim, or it could burn out completely. I'd just fix it the right way and take pride in a job done right

Dan

 

i had this problem (hi all i'm back i am still moving though) some may rember my asking about it but yea its your switch. shucks kreggers and what not cant get it, i dont know about auto zone or napa becaise we dont have them or they are way out of town.

$135 from nissan through the dealer, new not refurbed (i had the option, i went new there were revisions) it takes all of 30 minutes to install and most of the time was getting the wires out of the way so the to plastic peices will come together on the steering collum if they werent there it would have taken 5 minutes...just rember to disconnect your battery, your dealing with alot fo voltage through that switch and its probally best to dis connect it to install it so you dont have any suprises when you put it in