Headlight Switch Wiring Issue

[TG-2002-320i-328ci]

So back about a year ago my horn stopped working. I pulled the grills and found that someone had added a set of aftermarket horns on top of the stock. I removed them with the intention of using only the stock horns.

Anyway, I did all I could to try to find the fault and finally gave up and handed the fault over to my mechanic. I hate driving without a horn in the age of the inattentive driver!

Upon picking up the car, he told me that the headlight switch was wired wrong and that the two stages are set up as "ON" and second stage is "HIGH BEAMS". I didn't have the heart to tell him that the switch set up was perfectly fine when I left the car with him. I wasn't terribly concerned as I never drive my 3.0 at night.

Only recently, I discovered that the normal high beam position on the steering wheel stalk turns on the European-style headlight/tail light parking light, which is what the position 2 on the headlight switch would be.

So, somewhere he crossed connections. Looking over the wiring drawings, I am not seeing how this fault would happen.

Anyone ever come across such a scenario?

Advice from this forum is always appreciated.

 

[Ohmess]

Tracking down electrical problem is usually a problem of isolating the issue.

Based on your post, I think we need more information in order to be helpful. First, we need to know more about your car. From the small picture, your car lacks the US side marker lights, and so appears to have originally been a European car. If so, we need to know if your reference to "European-style headlights" means your car came equipped with "city lights"? If so, they are illuminating correctly (they should illuminate with the headlight switch in both positions 1 and 2 just like the side lights), but I infer from your question that other lights that should be working (headlights and bright lights maybe) are not.

Once we know what equipment your car has, we need to know how it behaves. When I do this I prepare a simple list of each and every light that illuminates:

When you pull out the light switch to position 1 with the headlight dipswitch up.

When you pull out the light switch to position 1 with the headlight dipswitch down.

When you pull out the light switch to position 2 with the headlight dipswitch up.

When you pull out the light switch to position 2 with the headlight dipswitch down.

From this list you can tell how the car is actually wired. Comparing this to the wiring diagram should isolate your problem.

 

[TG-2002-320i-328ci]

Hi Ohmess -

Yes, the car originally was a domestic German sale. Once the car made its way to me, it did not have "City Lights". However, I will be posting soon about my adding them (working on this today). They will be on a separate switch.

>"When you pull out the light switch to position 1 with the headlight dipswitch up." - Main Headlights ON, only.

>"When you pull out the light switch to position 1 with the headlight dipswitch down." - Main Headlights ON, only.

>"When you pull out the light switch to position 2 with the headlight dipswitch up." - Main Headlights ON With a Lower Beam Added and High Beams ON.

>"When you pull out the light switch to position 2 with the headlight dipswitch down." - Main Headlights ON With a Lower Beam Added

A couple of other notes:

1) Pulling in the dip switch toward the driver activates the High Beams with no ignition, and both positions with ignition on.

2) With the turn signal off, the Turn Signal stalk with activate the European-style parking light, but the Headlight is on in it's fully glory, as opposed to the lower beam setting.

Any insight is appreciated.

 

[Ohmess]

Yeah, it sounds like your headlight switch is not doing what it is supposed to do. As to pulling the dip switch toward you and the activation of your high beams, this is supposed to cause the brights to flash. Not sure whether mine does this with the ignition off, but let's leave pulling the dip switch out of the equation for now and just deal with up and down. If we get these right the remainder of the dip switch function will follow.

So, more questions:

Do the Euro e9s have a light on the front of the car that is supposed to illuminate when the parking and/or running lights are on? I had assumed that the parking lights on a Euro e9 consisted of a second, separate filament within the front turn signal housing and a bulb in the tail light housing. Your initial post made me think that perhaps the front illumination is not a separate filament within the turn signal housing, but is instead a small bulb in the headlight housing that is often called a city light. Your reply, however, states you don't have a city light. So, do the Euro cars have a running light on toward the front of the car that illuminates along with the tail light, and that is also used as a parking light?

Either way, in your initial post, you mentioned that the tail light parking light illuminated (along with the headlight), but in your reply you do not mention this. Do the tail lights not illuminate at all using either the light switch or the dip switch?

Also, I want to make sure I understand your reference to a "Lower Beam Added" and your separate reference to Headlight "fully glory." I am thinking that in both cases this means that you are seeing both filaments within the main headlight housing illuminate. Correct?

Lastly, you state that you can turn on both parking lights and headlights with your turn signal stalk. What do you do to the stalk to make that happen? And exactly which lights illuminate?

 

[HB Chris]

Euro coupes came with a small 4w city light in the H1 low beam headlight (single filament). The US H4 has two filaments and no city light, usually 55/60w. When high beam is activated on a euro coupe, the H1 low stays on and the H1 high also comes on. The euro coupes have a different high/low stalk on the column which does this. On a US coupe the stalk is different, when high is selected the 55w low filament goes out, the 60w low filament comes on and the 60w high also comes on. And you can add a jumper wire to a US stalk to make it function like a euro stalk. This is what I did on my coupe with the H1 low beam and city light.

And US market coupes have a different part number for the turn signal housing which has a two filament bulb so I assume euro coupes get a single filament lamp and there is no parking bulb there as it already has the city light in the headlamp.

 

[Ohmess]

Euro coupes came with a small 4w city light in the H1 low beam headlight (single filament). The US H4 has two filaments and no city light, usually 55/60w. When high beam is activated on a euro coupe, the H1 low stays on and the H1 high also comes on. The euro coupes have a different high/low stalk on the column which does this. On a US coupe the stalk is different, when high is selected the 55w low filament goes out, the 60w low filament comes on and the 60w high also comes on. And you can add a jumper wire to a US stalk to make it function like a euro stalk. This is what I did on my coupe with the H1 low beam and city light.

And US market coupes have a different part number for the turn signal housing which has a two filament bulb so I assume euro coupes get a single filament lamp and there is no parking bulb there as it already has the city light in the headlamp.

Thanks a ton Chris -- Did not know Euro cars had a single filament low beam. As with many things, that makes more sense that the stuff our DOT imposes.

Two questions so I can be more helpful here:

-- Can you confirm my assumption that pulling the light switch to position 1 (assuming original Euro wiring) activates the city lights in the front and a set of parking or running lights in the rear, but does not activate the headlights?

-- Does the turn signal stalk operate differently in a Euro e9?