I know this is probably a stupid question (You can write what I know about Cars on a postage stamp - 'Im a Lady'). But the headlights on my new car are really dim, I have to drive around with main beam on all the time at night. Do they need adjusting, New brighter bulbs or is the problem something else! Dont really want to go to a garage yet without trying to cure the problem myself! Any help appreciated (oh yeah its an F plate 89 1.7 - faultless apart from this)
Hi, congratulations with the car, glad it's gone to a good home!
When you say the lights are dim I assume you mean they are working but just poor. I recently had a problem where my dipped beam wasn't working due to a poor connection at the fuse box. Assuming they are working, it might be the silver reflectors inside the lights which are tarnished. They tend to go less reflective with age. New headlights (or just reflectors) might be the answer. I managed to get some new old stock headlights sent to me recently, from a car breakers in London.
I don't know if they still have any but you could try here:
L V M Second Avenue, London N18 2PG 020 8345 5148
They were £20 per headlight + P+P
Last edited by Hell Driver on 22 Dec 2010 11:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Apologies if you've already tried this, but a good clean often works wonders and it can be hard to tell they're dirty without looking at them really closely.
Its hard to be sure, it could be an electrical problem but the most common problem as mentioned is reflector corrosion. Some take the lights apart and polish the reflectors, but in some cases there is no metal layer left to polish and you are leaving it exposed without any lacquer so it may not last long. We don't have a good solution for this yet (requires expensive chemical processing) and new reflectors are no longer available. £20+p&P is a particularly good price for new old stock headlights, cheapest I saw before was £50 each.
Assuming your battery is charging ok and the alternator is providing the proper 14v (the lights should be dimmer with the engine off), then you need to check if the full voltage is getting to the bulb. Anyone with a multimeter could check this. If not try jiggling the connectors on the back of the bulb.
I replaced the bulbs in mine, for super bright halfords jobs, £20 for two. Improved vision ten fold. Mine were really dim to begin with.
Speedy88 wrote:
Leave choke on, idling obnoxiously until neighbours peer out windows at the noisy exhaust
Give neighbours thumbs up
Rev engine to 7K
Exit street sideways
Win at life.
Thanks all for your helpful replies and numbers given. I think we are going to replace the headlights and located an offside one already just up the road so just need the nearside and hopefully that is the problem sorted. We drove home with our main beam on and no-body flashed us at all so we knew there was definitely a problem.
Thanks as everybody on here is so helpful.
Does help a lot this time of year! All that is without full beam, so you're not dazzling anyone else but are getting a lot more light. OEM accessory too ...
Hi there. I have my 360 for about a week and have noticed similar problem with dim headlight. I've checked voltage and it is about 1 volt lower at the bulb comparing with battery voltage. Car was not driven for a long time so connectors are oxidized and "moldy" can it be an issue of that? If so, how would you recommend to clean them?
Cheers.
hmm hard to say 1v does seem alot. I had 1V across the crimp on my 940 battery and it was causing a slow charge, fixing and soldering improved the drop to <0.01V, but this was on a very heavy cable.
I don't have a good solution, maybe acid then soldering for corroded crimps, otherwise cut off and use fresh parts.
I had exactly the same problem of headlights going dim and it happened in thick fog which may or may not have been an advantage. It turned out to be that the alternator was on the way out. I also had a similar problem more recently which was caused by poor connections on the back of the fuse box - this caused the headlights not to come on at all, but there was lots of other trouble too. It should be easy to check the state of the reflectors and bulbs and if they're OK then it must be a connection or, more probably, the alternator. Check if the red dashboard light comes on next time they go dim, then its deffo the alternator.
1988 340 1.4 GL, 218k, 5 door (Grey Bess). Gone to CBA. 1991 340 1.7 GL, 64k, 5 door, petrol blue (Deep Blue). 1988 360 2.0 GLE, 140k, 5 door, ocean blue metallic (Blue Bess). 1989 340 1.7 GL, 108k, 3 door (Red Ness). More info here!
1.7 - faultless apart from this)
