Can anyone tell me or have experience with headlights not coming on
sporadically? Our 96 started to not have the headlights come on when
starting the car at night. Have not singled out if it is the switch or a
relay or some other problem. Sometimes restarting the car works, sometimes
just turning the switch on/off many times they finally come on. Just
looking wondering where to begin, and if it is the switch, how hard it is to
change that out? Thanks for all help and input.
MH - 29 Nov 2005 20:18 GMT
> ... Have not singled out if it is the switch or a relay
With contact and light switch on (and lights not working), wiggle the relay, see
what happens.

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MH
'72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96
'91 900i
Pidgeonpost - 29 Nov 2005 20:39 GMT
>> ... Have not singled out if it is the switch or a relay
>
> With contact and light switch on (and lights not working), wiggle the
> relay, see what happens.
I had a few problems getting cheapo replacement bulbs to seat properly but
that's unlikely to be the cause of a total lights-out. I guess it's more
likely to be the relay or switch, but don't rule out badly seated bulbs.
Perhaps you'd tell us what you find?
Malt_Hound - 29 Nov 2005 20:57 GMT
> Can anyone tell me or have experience with headlights not coming on
> sporadically? Our 96 started to not have the headlights come on when
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> looking wondering where to begin, and if it is the switch, how hard it is to
> change that out? Thanks for all help and input.
Does it matter if you try to switch between high beam and low beam?
There are two relays in the path of the power source for both of the
headlights. They are the Headlamp relay and the Headlight Dip relay.
After that they spliot and go through seperate fuses so the symptom
would be single sided.

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-Fred W
yaofeng - 29 Nov 2005 21:45 GMT
This is a classic symptom on the 9000's. The solder joint on the relay
cracked due to restrcition to thermal expansion. Pull the headlight
relay out. Carefully pry the internal out of its housing and examine
the solder joints with a magnifying glass. Sometimes you don't need a
magnifying glass. Reflow the solder joint and it should go back to
normal.