Headlight switch question

[ahardb0dy]

The headlight switch on my 90 sentra is acting up, sometimes only one headlight will come on and if I smack the end of the switch (stalk) with my knife the other headlight will come on. Every morning it does this, I went to my storage and found two more switches, one is worse the other I thought was working ok.

 

I removed the plastic cover and checked the contacts, bent one slightly and both headlights were coming on together, at least the first day, the next day back to one coming on.

 

I don't know why Nissan designed these switches the way they did, does it make sense to use a seperate contact for each low beam and seperate contacts for each high beam? Why not have one than split the wire to each headlight under the hood??

 

Anyway, I was going to run a jumper wire from the working headlight over to the non working one so even if the contact in the switch wasn't making contact both headlights would still come on, Will eventually make a junk yard trip and try to find another switch, maybe one that works !! I think the pathfinder headlight switch is the same.

 

Than I was thinking instead of running a jumper wire under the hood to the headlights, since the switch has two wires coming out of it for each low beam (high beams work fine), would anyone think I would have a problem if I jump from one low beam wire to the other right at the switch? Was thinking this would be easier as the 2 wires are half an inch apart.

 

What do you think?

Edited September 13, 2013 by ahardb0dy

[RedPath88]

My suggestion... buy a new switch then do the relay mod for the head lights. But that may not be an option.


They run each separate due to the amount of draw. Full power of the headlights run through the switches, so separating them should make them last longer than combining two together.


Many people, myself included have tweaked the contacts until they fail again in the first couple uses. But pressed for money (or simply cheap) you can get a few weeks to a few months or more. But then you could get lucky and find a switch in really good shape


Continued tweaking = slightly extended life

Tweaking + Relay Mod = Possibly a little more than above

New Switch + Relay Mod = Excepted as a "permanent fix"

[ahardb0dy]

Well the last switch I found looked like it just came out of the box, but now it's failing.

 

Was thinking about the possibility of too much draw across one contact feeding both headlights, good thing is they are just standard halogen bulbs.

 

Was also thinking of putting the low beams on a relay, leaving the high beams alone since they work fine. I guess if I use a relay as long as I use the low beam wire that is going to the low beam that always comes on, than splitting the output to each headlight it should be fine, that is how I did it on the PF, plus I would use 10 gauge which should be considerably thicker gauge than the stock headlight wiring.

 

 

[Alkorahil]

I am looking at the wiring diagram for this. I dont think it is inthe switch.

 

Is it the driver side light that Intermittently comes on?

Iam looking at R/Y wire and B wire come out of the switch to the fuseblock. B goes to the ground and R/Y goes on to the joint connector. From thte joint connector R/Y spits into R/Y (RH headlight) and R/L (LH headlight)

 

B=Black

R/B=Red-Black

R/Y = Red=Yellow

[ahardb0dy]

Rob are you looking at the pathfinder schematic? I think you must be because this topic is about the headlight switch in my 90 sentra and the schematic does not show a joint connector.

 

First line of my first post - "The headlight switch on my 90 sentra is acting up,"

 

Not sure which wire in the schematic going to the headlight bulb is the low beam and which is the high beam, not sure how they show the low vs high in the symbol, but in the FSM for my 90 sentra it shows the RH headlight has 3 wires going to it, B - ground, R/Y and R/B, and the LH headlight shows B - ground, R/L and R/G,

 

At the switch the schematic shows all 4 of the above colors going to the switch (R/L, R/G, R/Y, R/b) and also a R/W which goes to the fuse block.

 

 

Thanks for looking it up for me appreciate it.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2013 by ahardb0dy

[Slartibartfast]

I tweaked + relay modded a year and a half or so ago and I've had no trouble with the headlights since. I imagine it depends on how far gone the contacts are, how you clean them, and how you tweak them.

 

And yeah, a single contact is more than enough to drive a relay. That's how I wired mine (run off passenger's headlight wires). I used the other two contacts (that used to power the driver's side headlight) as power feeds for the relays for my fog and driving lights.

[ahardb0dy]

Thanks, I know the current coming off the stock headlight wire is more than enough to power a relay (trigger the relay), that's the nice thing about using a relay they take only like 3ma's of current to trigger them which also allows you to use a very small switch. Not like the old days before relays where you had to use a 20 amp huge switch to control a pair of off road lights !!

 

I have already switched to a relay in my pathfinder, I'm using a old Dick Cepek double relay I had, and am running both the low and high beams off of it since I swapped the sealed beam headlights for th Hella european spec H4 headlights with 55/100 watt bulbs, works perfect.

 

Back to the sentra, I think I will install one relay for now just for the low beams, high beams are working fine.