280ZX Stuck High Beams Fix

[naylor]

G'day.

 

I've been having trouble with the high beams staying on in the low beam position for about the past month and given how frustrating it was not being able to find a solution online, I figure I should try to explain how I fixed this for anyone else experiencing this problem.

 

(please note that beyond this point it will become painfully obvious that I have a very limited understanding of electronics.)

 

First off, you'll need to get at the inner workings of the headlights/turn signal switch. While it says in the service manual that you'll need to take the steering wheel off for this, you don't actually need to get the whole unit out, so I just took off the plastic casing that wraps around the column, ignition switch etc. (you'll probably need to take off the ignition key slot's metal surround bit to get all of this off)

 

now, there are about 4 metal connectors at the back of the switch, these are really hard to see from the drivers seat so I used a dentist mirror to be able to see what I was doing.

 

The metal connector that's closest to the drivers door is the culprit. When on low beams this connector seams to short out the high beams and connects the low beams, and when the switch is on high beams this connection is broken. All it needed was a bit of persistent cleaning with very fine sand paper and a few hits of electrical contact cleaner in between. I also bent this connector in every so slightly just to be safe.

 

I should have taken some photos of this but hopefully this information will be of some use to someone, it seams to be a pretty common problem.

 

Cheers,

Naylor.

[.]

Mate this is brilliant. I have been having similar issues on mine. I will certainly be giving this a go. Thanks heaps

[D.O.G]

+1

A big thanks, it's very embarrassing when my car starts flashing highbeam on the motorway.

I bent the switch contact a bit, which seemed to fix the problem for a couple of months, but now it's back again!

 

Pete.