Club 80-90 Forums

Help!
classic-camper-holidays.co.uk
Mr.T our 1990 2.1 came back from his last holiday with a bit of a problem.... the hirers were driving along a country lane (in the dark) when the main beam decided to go out all by itself!!! The passenger was able to hold the stalk in for main beam, but wasn't able to dip, so had a few flashes from other drivers when they were blinded! But there was nothing Mr.T could do... he was only only ten minutes away from his destination and thankfully they all made it there in one piece! Once back at CCH HQ we thought we could fix the problem with a fuse/switch/relay....BUT.....6 hours, a lost booking and one VW mechanic of 25 yrs experience later the problem actually got worse! You won't believe this but, NOW we have NO wipers...NO heater fan...and not only that but when we flash the main beam stalk the wipers come on and the heater fan starts to work!!! Arrrg! :s All other lights including side lights are in perfect working order.....can anyone give any helpful advice as to what the problem might be? It would be VERY much appreciated........

Checked the earths?

Hello.

Almost definitely a earth issue .
Although you may also have a melted light switch now

I have checked the earths, all seem ok, when i switch lights to side, they are ok, when i switch to main, side`s are ok but no main until i pull the dip stalk up, then they come on full beam, but the really weird thing is I have no wipers or heater fan until the switch is on main beam and the stalk is pulled up, then they all come on together, this doesn`t happen when the switch is just in side position.

Does anyone know if there is something, that connects main beam to heater to wipers?????????????????

Any help/suggestions would be most welcome, as I don`t want to spend all Sunday with my a*** sticking out of MrT`s passenger door.

I dont have my Bentley to hand and Im just on my way out, but
I have an intermittent fault at the ignition switch that takes my headlights out from time to time.
Sides work and main beam, but headlights, fan and wipers all stop.
I've not tried fan and wipers with dip switch held in,

I've been meaning to swap the ignition switch, but at the moment a piece of plastic jammed behind the switch keeps everything working.
T

I posted something similar to this on a previous thread - and I think that you have the same problem.

It looks like it might be the following problem (from a quick look at wiring diagrams).......

There is a relay that provides power to the wipers/heater blower (X-Load-Reduction Relay - or some such name).
This relay is activated by 12v from the ignition switch (but the same wire also provides power for the headlight switch (for main beam/high beam but not side lights)) - so there is Black/Yellow wire that goes from the Ignition switch to the Headlight switch and then splices off from there to the relay.

I think that this wire is at fault in your system (and is broken/disconnected, therefore not providing power to the x-load-reduction relay or to the headlight switch)

The wipers/heater work when you pull the headlight stalk because the 'high beam' is powered by a different 12v supply and the headlight stalk is feeding that 12v 'backwards' through the headlight switch and re-activating the relay that powers the wipers/heater.

So, if that is problem - the fault is somewhere either at the ignition switch, at the wire between the ignition switch and the headlight switch, or at the headlight switch. The wire is a Black/Yellow striped wire (according to my wiring diagrams) - check that this is making a good connection at the ignition switch and at the headlight switch.
If you yank the top off the gauge console thingy you should be able to see the wire running from the headlight switch to the ignition.

Hope that helps.

I will check that out next, in the mean time can any one tell me where the headlight relay is? can`t find it on the transporter, but when I go to the Syncro there it is plain as day clicking away, maybe this won`t help?

There isn't a headlight relay unless you have modified the wiring to use one.

If you look at OBG's picture above - relay #8 is the one I'm talking about - turn the key and that relay should click (I bet it doesn't in your case)
Now turn the headlights on, then pull the stalk to activate the high beam - and I bet that relay clicks - if it does then the problem is as I described above.

Thank you so much, it was the ignition switch, Mr T back to normal, and ready for more adventures with classic camper holidays