No Dipped Or Main Beam

[deano266]

Hi guys

 

Recently just changed some old tatty headlights to some shiny new ones and now don't have a dipped beam or main beam, but do have sidelights and indicators. The wires are connected correctly to corresponding connectors and the bulbs do work as tested on another vehicle.

 

All fuses are working and the switches work.

 

Does anyone have any ideas

 

Dean

[IanS]

My first thought is that the earth connection is missing.

[deano266]

Roughly where would that be. The engine bay is an absolute jungle of wires and after the junctions they are all red or separate to different colours

[IanS]

Robin hood has no standard wireing.

But the headlights should be fused, I have 4 fuses so that one blowing does not leave me in darkness.

Check for blown fuses which could be under the dash or in the engine bay.

[Guest 2b cruising]

+1. If power is to lights, it got to be earth. Your old units probably earthed through the lamp body onto car framework. Make sure you have not insulated the lamp to frame with plastic washers.

If new lamps are plastic coated, you need to find an earth point inside the unit and connect a wire from there to somewhere on you car frame or lamp bracket.

HTH Ken.

[deano266]

Where should the earth be taken from

[sj-bradley]

Any nearby chassis point.

 

Simon.

[deano266]

Just looked at the unit and the unit is metal with metal fixings but the wires have a sleeve round them. Which wire or point on the connector to the bulb should be earthed

[Longboarder]

You could give a little more information about what you have. Type of unit. Type of bulbs. Number of bulbs. Wires that are in the lamp or come from it, number, colours. Try and give enough information for us to have some idea of what we are trying to solve. Or risk getting a perfectly good but utterly unhelpful answer like 'Make sure you wire the lamps in correctly and they will work fine'.

 

Nigel

[Longboarder]

For instance if the headlights have a sealed beam unit or twin filament old style main/dip bulb they will expect this. Wire to left contact looked at from behind the bulb is the one that goes to earth. The top wire is the one from the dip circuit. The one on the right is the wire from the main beam circuit.

The line diagram just explains how there are two supply wires and one earth wire. The pic of the back of the sealed beam unit shows the physical position of the correct connections

 

Nigel

Edited February 26, 2015 by Longboarder

[sj-bradley]

... 'Make sure you wire the lamps in correctly and they will work fine'.

 

Oh, does that mean I can't say "wire it to the ground near the flux capacitor ... " then

 

Actually, probably not a good idea as the feedback would send the time circuits into fluctuation and you would end up back at square one ...

 

Simon.

[deano266]

The new unit is completely metal but still no lights. Where could I wire in an earth from the 3 pin connector or bullet connectors to give an earth

[deano266]

I'll try and get some pictures uploaded to make it easier

[Guest 2b cruising]

The three wires on the bullet connector should all be live. Side dip and main beam.

The bulb is earthed by touching the lamp body, but nowhere near the flux capacitor.

[deano266]

I wonder if its a faulty flux capacitor also haha