main beam issue

[lexussoarer1996]

Hi , the vehicle is a South African 2.5i with square headlights , i have just discovered the inner high beams do not work , the outer high and all other lights work as normal , removed the bulbs and they are both good , checked all fuse and swapped a relay that i think is related to the headlights. i have not yet checked the headlight switch or the dim dip stalk.

[Aidan]

originally the inner lamps were just piggy back wired to the main bulbs and there were no relays at all, all the power went through the switch, so if your hi-beam is working on the main lamps the switch is working, so you may have non standard wiring if someone has done a relay upgrade job, you will have to trace the wiring back from the lamps to figure out what's going on

[Aidan]

stock wiring, European twin square headlights, you can see the inner on the right piggy backed to the main plug, side light is the one at the bottom

[cobblers]

stock wiring, European twin square headlights, you can see the inner on the right piggy backed to the main plug, side light is the one at the bottom

It really is a wonder that they even work as well as they do

[lexussoarer1996]

here's a pic of the driver side wiring , two wires from the inner light into a connector with four wires coming out then into to the loom.

[Aidan]

looks like that's your problem, how ever the main lamp is wired it looks like the loom has been modded and so no power to the aux inner lamp, it may be the factory wiring was different on the late SA vans to ours, but the twinning and the insulation tape looks like the original wiring has been modded to supply the aux and the main is now wired separately from the relay upgrade point so you'll need to look at what's under the shrivelled insulation tape and if that's okay check the back of the fuse/relay board and see what's going on

[lexussoarer1996]

there's nothing under the insulation tape and its now fallen off.

I think these SA vans have different wiring to UK vans and have not found any sign of modified wiring. i have found a picture of the relays on a previous post on this site which shows a main beam relay i have swopped this even though the outer mains were working and as i thought it didn't make any difference.

[Aidan]

Do you have the wiring diagram ?

[Stesaw]

This sounds daft but have you looked to see if there are any connectors that have fallen into the bodywork at the front?

[lexussoarer1996]

Do you have the wiring diagram ?

Hi Aidan , i don't have a South African wiring diagram , pulled the fuse box as far out as it would go , checked the earths , used a jumper cable form the outer high beam to the inner and the lights came on so no power supply to the inners ,didnt get a chance to trace the supply wires as it rained, so it will have to wait till next weekend now.
 

[bigherb]

The main beam relay is marked 53 in the fusebox.

 

[lexussoarer1996]

yeah , the one marked 15 in the above diagram , i have changed that  , inners still not working.

[Aidan]

you might be able to find and download the wiring diagram from erwin, link to erwin euro7 per hour to use it; when I last had access (on someone else's account) so I could get the T4 gearbox manuals (that he wanted me to work on) I did download everything I could find on there for the SA vans but the computer I was using then subsequently died due to messed up boot sector which XP managed to scramble one time and I only pulled off the stuff I actually needed from the hard drive and the hard drive isn't now readily accessible, I can't remember if the wiring diagrams were in what I got, mostly it was the engine stuff, and iirc it didn't have all the varieties of the 5 cylinder just like the parts catalogue doesn't have a comprehensive list for all years of the SA vans, it's a partial dataset

The guys in SA should have the wiring diagrams and they should be available online somewhere on a forum or group but I know not where, there's probably a SA van facebook or whatsapp group where peeps who know more hang out

I'm just about to replace the dash harness on my 1990 SA 2.1 Syncro with a stock UK RHD Syncro loom to get around the fitted/bodged aftermarket immo/alarm and the original factory immo/alarm so it's stock UK spec for which I have the diagrams, and because whoever fitted the aftermarket immo/alarm (in South Africa in about 2017) butchered the original loom doing it so it is now very unreliable and not fully functional, but the 1990 vans are basically, apart from the SA factory immo/alarm and the step light the same as the European built vans electrically afaics

[bigherb]

yeah , the one marked 15 in the above diagram , i have changed that  , inners still not working.

Fuse 28 15A above the fusebox supplies the relay.

[lexussoarer1996]

yeah , the one marked 15 in the above diagram , i have changed that  , inners still not working.

Fuse 28 15A above the fusebox supplies the relay.

Just went out with a torch to check that fuse and its missing , fitted a random fuse and there on ,  those inner high beams have not worked while I've owned the van , i guess the mot tester didn't spot that.