Mk3 Dipped Beam Problem

[Guest br1gg5y]

Need help, the car is a MK3 escort

Symptoms are;

1-the side lights work,

2-if I move the stalk into the "dipped" position the dipped lights do not work.

3-If I leave the right hand stalk in "dipped" position and then pull the left hand stalk towards me (as to flash the main beam) the main beam works.

4-If I then push the left hand stalk away from me as to switch the main beam permanetly, nothing happens

Checks made;

- All fuses are good

- When the dipped beams should be on as stated in symptom 2, there appears to be no power to the bulb

- The contacts for the large black relay in the fuse box appear clean.

- If I use a mutli metre, and again have the switches positioned as described in symptom 2, of the 3 contacts for the realy only 1 has power.

Thoughts-

is it the relay?

is it the right hand stalk / switch, it it is this, this will be number 4 in 2 years. Why do they keep failing?

[Guest br1gg5y]

I have done more "digging" I have identified all the wires utilised for the lights at the two stalks / switches. Here is a pretty picture

With the ignition off

3 has power

5 has power

With the ignition on

1 has power

3 has power

5 has power

With the right hand stalk in position 1 (parking / side lights on)

6 becomes live

With the right hand stalk in position 2 (dipped on)

6 stays live

2 becomes live

I suspect the problem is 4 should be going live as well, but is not.

One the subject of relay's people earlier coments were crrect I was mis reading the fuse box cover. The 3 relay's relating to the lights are under the dash. I do now suspect it is again the damn switch shorting out. But to prove this I want to remove the lead from the rear of the right hand stalk unit. And bridge cables together and see the dipped beam come on. I cannot decide what I should be bridging together, I did try bridging 1 directly to 4. No Joy, no spark.

My suspision is that 6,4 and 2 all need to "live" for the dipped beam to work.

[Guest tbirdbooboo]

hi i had similar symptoms - if i had my lights on and then indicated it would make the headlights pack up , same if i went to main beam. in the end i changed the stalk and all is ok. keep in mind that if you have uprated your bulbs or similar you will need a relay or you end up burning out the switch / stalk. when i was younger i did this - fitted 100w rally headlight bulbs then wired some spot lights to come on with main beam , yeah my headlight switches didnt last long lol now in my mk3 i have lower fogs which also have side lights in em , upper spots ,again with side lights in them and then normal headlights but the bulbs are now 100/90watt . i redid my headlight loom from the battery not the stalk end and have put some relays in and its all good now . if your changing stalks then they have too much power running through the loom ie more powerfull bulbs or more bulbs etc etc so i think you need to fit a switching relay to deal with the load chap

[Guest 85mk3]

Been having the same problem with my mk3 recently. Dip beam stopped working and main beam cannot be selected either (other than to flash at people) I replaced the switch for a second hand one which has lasted for a week and I now have the same problem once again. It had some ford spot lamps on and it seems like they were fitted from new. I have recently swapped these for some more modern ring lamps so I can see!! (This was done after the first switch failed) The wiring and bulbs remain the same so I do not think that has caused the second failure. For the time being I think I am just going to wire all the lamps up to aircraft switches until I can figure out what is causing the problems. Ill let you know how I get on. Will hopefully have time to do this at work tomorrow.