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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Headlight electrical issue


JS2004

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Hi guys,

 

Bit of a strange one.

 

All of a sudden my headlights have ceased to work. I have sidelights, fogs and main beam, however my dipped headlights are kaput.

 

What I have doneso far:

 

Checked fuse box in engine bay. It has a 15 and a 20 amp fuse in there. Part of the plastic on the 20amp fuse is melted. In the past I have had melted / blown fuses.

 

I have replaced both fuses with 20amp and tried headlighs - no luck.

 

I then thought it might be the bulbs. However on inspection both bulbs look intact.

 

On forums I have searched for similar problems but the instances I have seen are usually related to someone touching something and accidently trapping a wire / causing a bad earth etc.

 

I have not messed with the lights or fuses for quite a while so why they have suddenly ceased to operate is concerning.

 

My next plan is to post here and see if anyone knows of this issue or can suggest a fix.

 

I will also be contacting an auto-electrician this afternon.

 

I am assuming that each headlight is controlled independantly so I the left /right fuse had blown then that side should not work, but the other side would continue to operate. If this is the case then I am a bit more concerned as to why both have stopped working at the same time :(

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Considered the relay also.

 

Ive got it in with a garage right now. Hopefully they can sort it and with a bit of luck its something relatively straight forward.

 

Although the bulb filaments looked intact a work colleague has sugested the pins in the base could be broken. Also as both left and right seem to be dead I cant swap the bulbs over to test.

 

Waiting for the garage to call back. Hopefully its bulbs and not something more sinister!

 

Out of curiosity how much was the relay mate? seems easy enough to remove and replace.

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Guest Roger NE

Buy yourself a nice simple Multimeter ! (I'd always recommend an Analogue one)

 

Then you can check if the power is getting through . . also check the resistance of a bulb or fuse to see if it's faulty

 

Much better than wasting money on a garage ! (personally I find most garages hopeless when it comes to sorting out any electrical problem - they just replace parts until the fault is fixed, when often a bit of emery paper on a relay contact, bulb socket or even earth connection will fix the fault!)

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Luckily its turned out to be dud bulbs.

 

Both of them going at the same time is quite a coincidence though. The filaments are intact (even looked with a magnifying glass) so the mechanic chap reckons its the pins in the base of the bulbs that went.

 

Having them both die on me at the same time is why I initially thought it was something more sinister.

 

New bulbs in - working.. going to monitor it though to make sure that something isnt causing them to break.

 

Going to chuck my multimeter into the boot so its on hand incase it happens again along with another set of spare bulbs!

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