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Headlights are intermittent?!

A

andrey

NAXJA Forum User
Location
seattle
I have tried my best to figure this one out but to no avail. Here is the situation;hoping that someone can help.
the headlights on my 93 xj 4.0. keep cutting out and in after about 15-20 minutes of use. This happens during any driving condition when they have been on this long. I have replaced the headlight switch and also replaced the headlight relay under the drivers side dash. Everything is stock with no high output lamps or anything. I thought at first that they might be burning out. this has not solved the problem. Has anyone had a situation like this and successfully fixed it?

I was thinking that there may be a situation where the switch may be overheating because it happens about the same time everytime.

I thought it may be a loose ground but havent found one yet.

I am running out of ideas. Thanks guys!
 
well...I should have done a more thorough search of the forum before I posted. I did find some info that seemed helpfull.

grounds and relays are good
switch plug is good and so is switch

added a better ground to the headlight switch...night driving will tell if it is working. while idling the vehicle and leaving the lights on they did not cut out during the test.
 
As Jess said check the harness connection for mean green(corrosion) by the airbox. I had to re-wire entire harness for that reason.

Also another thing to check for is your Day time running light modual which is located on the right(passenger) inside fender. It's a black box with a plug in it. This was also a problem with my 98. Unplug it and you will lose day time running lights but you will remedy the problem, if it is indeed the culprit.

Sean
 
Last edited:
Xj'sR'Creamy said:
As Jess said check the harness connection for mean green(corrosion) by the airbox. I had to re-wire entire harness for that reason.

Also another thing to check for is your Day time running light modual which is located on the right(passenger) inside fender. It's a black box with a plug in it. This was also a problem with my 98. Unplug it and you will lose day time running lights but you will remedy the problem, if it is indeed the culprit.

Sean
Click to expand...

No daytime running lights on US models in 93.
 
Do the high beams work when the headlamps go out?

I had a problem similar to yours. My headlamps wouldn't turn on sometimes when I first try to turn them on and they would turn on after about 10 minutes of driving. Relay would click on, but headlamps wouldn't turn on. High beams worked fine though. My solution is to just move the connection/cables on the relay end around a little bit and they'd work fine again.
 
Well I drove home tonight in the dusk/dark and on my commute the lights seemed to work fine with no cut outs. I am still skeptical though. I will check the connection by the airbox later in the week. Is the connection under the airbox or right near it...I can pull it out to get in there and clean out the connection.

What I did was rewire the switch ground with larger wire because I couldnt trace the ground much further behind the dash without yanking the whole thing. Thanks for the ideas and will be back with further news.
 
There is a circuit breaker built into the headlight switch. If the circuit breaker is popping, there should be heat. Feel the wires coming out of the switch, you may have to uncover (remove some tape) some of the wires. You can often feel the heat with your fingertip through the insulation, the metal pins at the connectors definitely gets hot as does the wire under the insulation.
Pulling the connector and looking for dark discoloration on the pins can also be helpful in narrowing down which wire/sub system is causing the grief.
 
I think the circuit breaker and checking for good connections is the right direction, I thought there may be a fuse somewhere in the circuit though. If so I would replace it since this kind of problem can be related to an intermittent connection inside the fuse which will open with heating over a period of time and reconnect once the lights are off for awhile.
 
Have you had the intermittent problem since October or has it just started up again?

In your original post you said you replaced the relay under the dash. Insofar as I know, my '93 doesn't have a headlight relay under the dash and I am curious if you have something added to your system.

According to my manual, there is a 40amp fuse in the PDC for the headlight switch which should be replaced just in case, but as 8Mud suggests, the most likely culprit where a device turns on and off in a fairly consistent pattern is excessive current causing a circuit breaker (in the headlight switch in this case) to cycle.

Your ultimate solution may be adding a harness with relays which can be done at small cost if you do not plan to upgrade to high wattage lamps.
 
Pelican, this has been an ongoing problem for some time now.

items that have been addressed:
new headlight switch
new relay that is connected to auto shut off for the lights I believe
new ground at the switch
fuses are good
cleaned connection under airbox
lamps are new

the funny thing is that it switches off then on after 5-7 sec. then is fine for a while and will cut out again. then back on. on road trips in the dark it can be a little disturbing.
and thanks for the input guys!
 
Correct if I am wrong.... , but isnt there a headlight relay in the PDC ???
Try checking the resistance on the coil wiring that pulls in the relay for the headlights. The contacts will drop out due heat build up caused by resistance in the wiring loops that create the magnetic field to close the relays contacts....
I know you said you checked the relay, but there could still be a problem...
when the relay has been pulled in for a while....
 
I don't know about later years but there is no headlight relay in the PDC for '93. This means that all the current for the headlamps flows through the headlight switch. In the case at hand, a reasonable probability is that excessive current is causing the circuit breaker in the switch to trip and reset.

I am not sure what device with a relay andrey has under the dash -- sentinel feature? -- but I would probably try taking that out of the circuit for troubleshooting purposes.
 
this problem has been a bugger for some time now. Resolution was simple eliminate the low beam circuit altogether. I set up a new switch realy and lead into the low beam at the drivers side light and this has since resolved the problem. The hard part is that I never really figured out what it really was. The only alternative idea that I had heard from other threads was the high beam switch in the column could be shorting out...maybe if I have a bunch of spare time...thanks for all the help guys!
 
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