Headlight Relay Repair Bonus.......

[ANGEL P]

Just repaired my minor problem of the headlights coming on in retracted mode and staying on no matter what I did (with the exception of disconnecting the battery ground strap). I opened the relay apart and cleaned all the fine contacts. (I was surprised at how complex this old relay is and now understand the replacement cost for a unit.)
Anyway, upon testing my efforts not only did I correct the problem, but my lights are now noticeably brighter! This is a subjective observation but I don't think that what I am experiencing is the 'freshly washed car goes faster' syndrome. My eyesight is a little compromised for night time driving and I noticed a very big difference in the illumination.

Perhaps a little cleaning up of the relay contacts is a good prophylactic treatment for better night time visibility. The process took me about 30 minutes. Tools employed were a small needle-nose pliers to bend the relay case edge back to pull the mechanism, some extremely fine emery folded in half to delicately pull between the several sets of contacts and some electrical spray cleaner from Radio Shack.

If you do this, be very delicate.