Quote:
Originally Posted by CharlesJones
Hi all,
I have just replaced my headlight pull switch, which had been becoming increasingly unreliable over the last few months. The old switch at first lost the "feel" between the first pull stop (for side lights) and full pull, and then started to need a bit of twisting and fiddling to get the lights to come on, before not working at all. So I bought a new switch (cost a lot!) and swapped the switch over taking great care to put the wires on the same terminals of the new switch as they were on the old.
I tested the new switch whilst it was still dangling under the dash board, but it did some odd things. I found at half pull I got the fog lights along with the side lights, and then at full pull I got the headlights fine, and the rear fog light went out (front fogs stayed on). And then there was something odd going on with the illuminated switches on the dashboard too (the window demister switch, fog light switch etc) - at half pull they illuminated whereas at full pull they didn't - something like that anyway. Any how, then my expensive new switch then started smoking! It looks like solder or something is oozing out between the wire wrappings from inside the switch, so I hastly disconnected the battery. I don't know if the switch would have smoked in the off position, or only in the on - I didn't want to risk destroying the new switch in trying to find out!
Do any of you know what might cause the switch to smoke? I don't think the new switch is faulty - its a genuine porsche part, and looking at the old switch it looks like a section of those wire wrappings has burnt out, which might be the reason the switch stopped working. I am not great with electrics - I am learning, and possess a multimeter and know about basic stuff like voltage drop testing, but that's about the extent of my knowledge at the moment (I want to learn though!).
Also, do you think if I fit a headlight relay kit it might help this problem? I want to fix the problem properly of course, as opposed to just mask it, but I was thinking that presumably fitting a relay kit would involve some new wiring which might irradicate a possible short. And at least with relays I wouldn't be risking my expensive new headlight switch!
Many thanks for your help - any advise is greatly appreciated!
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Charles,
Let's start at the beginning:
When I replaced the headlight switch in our '86,
I disconnected the battery, and documented the connections.
Please compare this to your wiring:
And here are the color codes:
SW-BLACK
WS-WHITE
RT-RED
GN-GREEN
GE-YELLOW
GR-GREY
BR-BROWN
BL-BLUE
U-VIOLET
pm me as needed.
Good luck,
Gerry