Dipped headlights been silly.

As the name implies, my dipped headlights arent working. The sidelights and main beams work, just no dipped. They worked fine 3 days ago and nothings happened to the car in the meantime, they just didnt work at all to start with today. Any thoughts?
This is on my petrol series 3.

Cheers guys.

Remove and clean up or replace earth leads .. I replaced mine from starter to engine, engine to chassis (not standard) and battery to chassis. Made a world of difference and all the electrical 'niggles' were magically fixed ...

I had my dipped beam go. It turned out to be a total coincidence that both bulbs had blown virtually at the same time. Incredible but worth a check.

cao said:

I had my dipped beam go. It turned out to be a total coincidence that both bulbs had blown virtually at the same time. Incredible but worth a check.

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Weird... That happened to me too just 3 weeks ago on my car - I just assumed that the switch or a relay had gone wrong, but though I might as well check the bulbs anyway and there they were: Both dipped beam fillaments burned out.

This happened a good two years ago and the replacement bulbs are still going strong.

I think I'll give the bulbs a check first then, but if its not the bulbs, would it really be possible for the earths to go literally over night? Since it's not as if they've got worse and worse, they just weren't there.

jmattley said:

I think I'll give the bulbs a check first then, but if its not the bulbs, would it really be possible for the earths to go literally over night? Since it's not as if they've got worse and worse, they just weren't there.

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I don't think it could be an earth problem since the main and dipped fillaments share the same earth, and your main beams are working O.K. If you pull the grille off you will find the feed wire for the dipped lights which comes from the switch. It might be the lucas bullet connections that need some cleaning up. Test to see if you've got 12v there. If not work your way back along the wiring to the switch testing the voltage at each connection.

have a look at the switch, i've been casing headlight faults on my 2a for ages, turns out the full/dip foot switch is broken and the terminals on the headlights are crudded up really badly and one of the lamps is blown and there's a snapped wire!! :confused2:


are the dipped beam lamps on a separate fuse from the full beam? might be worth checking as well!

Series motor, headlamps, fuse?

I've had a look at the above, I think it's a ****ed switch so I'll get a new one tomorrow.

Davec said:

Series motor, headlamps, fuse?

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yeah, really dont know what i was thinking there!! :boom:


which switch is bust? i managed to strip the dash one down and fix the broken bits, bit of a fanny on but i'm on a "get a landy road legal without spending any money" challenge!!

Good look with that!! I've also deduced that it's a fooked main/dipped stalk switch from circuit tester testing and also by the fact that ive now lost the ability to flash people so it'sgot worse lol!

spray it with wd 40 and clean the terminals before you condem it to death

good plan, WD fixes all!

my switch is fine, the stalks fooked, but, i put a splicer between 2 wires (cant remember which) and seems to have cured it, but dipped wont go out when mains on, so really need a new stalk

mines opposite, dipped works but high beams dont, so i got some wipac driving lamps and bunged thoughs on and now i can see great as there halogen bulbs!!! i think its my stalk thats broken though and thats why my high beam wont work...