my rs 16i mk4 cabby has been in storage for 5 years and need to sort this problem out so i can get it mot'd and taxed and not have rely on others for transport to get to work. Here goes......I can vaguely remember reversing the polarity by fitting battery in the dark once....(last year)..also the car had no headlights or bumper connected at this time. The battery cables became hot and was removed promptly. a year later got it ready for an mot connected headlamps. Only my sidelights work and no dipped or main beam. i have replaced stalk and headlight bulbs, relays. and ive even had an auto electrician check my earth and power from switch to light bulbs. the rear of the car...the clusters have a really poor connection with multi-plug being over wide. i have straightened them and made them tighter so when try tomorrow should be better. before i did this the bulbs were barely igniting. i have fog lights come on when tail lights are on also??? i have no heater blowers or radiator fan???..(must be a connection)?
im thinking its got some thing to do with the alarm, although the car runs perfectly??..maybe a relay ive missed in connection with alarm??..ideas would appreciated...

 

earths?

 

tomorrow i will remove all the earth's and clean them up with a bit of p80, also fit new self tappers, connectors. also do i need a earth to the body on the drivers side from indicators as there is a broken wire attached to body behind the front indicator and i cant recall disconecting it???..the bloke i bought this off years ago has totaly butchered electrics with shabby diy radars and stereos..lol

 

check your relays mate, mine did the same, turned out to be a dodgy connection under the relay.

 

im convinced its connection under the relay as ive checked everything else.
the only problem is how do i remove the fuse box to inspect it???nothing in haynes manure and ive googed it to death with no fookin reults..lol..help..

 

check the pins are connected first by lifting the fuse out, will be the ones located along the top right.

lifting the fuse box is simple, lift the rubber grommet where the loom joins the box and then lift the entire thing upwards. The box bit of the fuse box should remain

 

Just did that but was a bit apprehensive in terms of pulling or twisting in cas i cause any damage. are you able to twist fuse board over? i noticed where it looms towards the underside of steering column. there are relays ive never seen before. a pink one,with number 856G 9P704 AA and a black one with the number 86 FG 10374 AA??are these connected to my plight???...lol

 

i know on a series 2 the pink one is for the fuel pump and there is a blue one which is for the lights. maybe the black one is for the headlights but im not sure

 

pink is fuel pump. The headlight relays are in the fuse box. those little light brown relays top right, should have some for beam, dipped, and main

 

thanks guys.....i bought a set of relays on fleabay and there was only 1 brown relay..so i had a bit fiddle to see if could feel it clicking and the brown 1 closest to the side of box was the only one i could feel...do both relays have to be functional? as i may have been playing around to no avail with 1 good relay???..lol. if so that must be the reason? needing 2 functional switches in line?.

 

yup:

relay for main beam/dipped
and relay for flash (left and one for right)

 

haha..nice1 dave..
i will purchase 2 new one promplty..lol.
its really strange because everything was fine when took it off the road in 2005..
hopefully this will solve the myth of my elusive headlights and there where abouts..lol

 

i will buy 2 replacements..and see what happens..hope this sorts it because its doing my f*****g nut right in...lol

 

just found this out whilst swoting up on the net...lol..........
Components
Brown relay (heated seats, headlights, indicator flasher etc) 1000 uF Electrolytic Capacitor 16V working minimum. 1000 ohm 0.5W 3 lengths of light gauge wire, preferable of different colours.
Caution: Electrolytic capacitors are polarity sensitive and will explode if connected reverse polarity...........
thats exactly what i did in the friggin dark...lol..

 

Interesting thread... I've got a similar issue with my RST - My headlights work fine on sidelights and dipped beam, but when I turn main beams on the drivers side works perfectly and the passenger side doesn't. The dipped beam goes OFF, no main beam and just the sidelight stays on! Looks like my car's winking when I flash someone!

 

just an update lads......
its still the same, changed the 3 brown relays and still no headlights, main beam or indicators, cooling fan or heaters...iv'e got an expert in to sort this out..thats 2 months insurance ive lost up to now..still no friggin MOT...will post again when he finds out the cause..i dont care how much it costs me...its gotta be done...lol

 

still not happening...any1 know anything about a black relay under drivers foot well, it has the numbers, 41 212....then underneath 86 f6 10374 aa????
it has 4 pins???..it controls three circuits according to the diagram on it??...
please some help?...its costing me a small fortune.

 

got exactly same problem now, its bugging me big time..... Is the black one a 5 pin one!!!!

 

buy a cheap multimeter and a haynes manual

 

Be very careful with the legend for these as I know the relay labelled as "Heated seats" is actually for the ECU.

Don't know on your car but everything you should need for what you want should be in the fuse box, if anything like other models things like heated screen relay etc are behind the dash.

It sounds like your missing LIVE(S) this could be caused by broken wire(s) or another common thing is the fuse holders corrode and so the fuse doesn't get a good connection, first check this by removing the fuse and visually inspecting and then with lights and ignition ON wiggle the fuse.

If no avail it's worth inspecting the underside of the fuse panel as a wire may have broken off the terminal.

You need a multimeter or test light but you need to determine if you have power to the relays etc.

Martin

 

Hi guys. I have the same problem on a 1988 s2. Car had been off the road and garaged for 7 years. Battery had been disconnected to stop it going flat. I now have no heater fan, no radiator fan, no reversing lights, no main or dipped beam and no idicators but hazard flashers are fine. Everything else seems okay. Had the car from new so I am sure the electrics have not been altered. The items not working are also listed in sequence in the handbook but this could just be a coincidence. Does anyone know the solution to this please ? BB

 

I have the same problem :-(

 

Must be earth somewhere.. No indicators, no heater, and the lights work on side lights but not on dip.. can't be ignition relay as widows work and mirrors work..
Pulling my hair out

 

Hi every1 I have recently bought a 1987 s2 and have a massive headache side lights work main beam works but no headlights changed the stalk checked all the fuses and swapped the relays round as they are all small brown 1s in the fuse box as apose to there sometimes being blue or white relays there also since doing this and checking the wiring the indicators and hazards have stoped working the fog light switch lights up as soon as you put side lights on and the drivers side rear are faulty as the reversing light fog light and tail light light up dull but if you wiggle the multiplug on it the light will appear fine I am thinking there's a really bad earth somewhere?

 

Hey guys. Just came across this thread as I the headlights on my XR3i failed for some reason and I was stumped. The sidelights work but when I put dipped beam on, nothing....apart from one sidelight working!?
I read the thread which mentioned relays and I suspected these might be the trouble. It turns out it was the rear-most two in my fuse box.....

It was the two small white relays shown in the picture. I took one of them out but the other one was really tough to remove. I examined the prongs and there is a silver one on each. It was this one that was really corroded and looked to be peeling. I sanded them down with some wet and dry paper, slotted them back in and hey presto - the headlights now worked!!

Hope some of you find this useful.

cheers,
Lee

 

just had the same problem with mine. it's been stood for a few years.
the main beam and side lights worked but not the dipped beam.
I saw your post last night and had a look today and sure enough it was the top right relay which is brown on mine, just gave it clean and all is good.
cheers, neil.

 

Nice one mate. Glad the advice worked for someone.

 

By the way, those two white relays - is one for sidelights and one for dipped beam? Also I've always wondered what those letter 'R's mean on the relays? One of mine looks like it's been painted on there by hand?

 

sorry to revive, been having issues where dipped beam would come on half power with sidelights but swirching to dipped beam nothing but sidelights, found out in my case it was the white relays, i got them working now