Headlight mystery, yet another version: solved, and a lament

[macjack]

I've used the search and not seen this written about. So I'll post the issue. And the easy fix. And a lament about a formerly trusted shop.

Symptoms: Right low beam not on unless high beams are on. With high beams, all lights lit. Again, on low beam, just left is on. I've had an ignition switch go out before. That was different. I'm thinking the headlight switch?
Btw, I've got the headlight relay, and yes, it helped a lot for brightness and is probably prolonging the life of the other switches. But that is not helping my low bream problem.

I'm electrical diagnosis-challenged, though I have a voltmeter and if I have lots of time can overcome my disability. I don't have lots of time in the next few days, before heading out to Moab, and this just popped up.

So, I read all the posts I can about all the random headlight issues. I see grounds, fuses, and switches all as potential culprits. I can't wrap my head around how the low beam would work on high beam setting and not work on just low beam setting.

Anticipating posting the question on the samba, I resolve to check the super easy things, starting with the fuses. Upon opening the fuse cover, there is a loose fuse rattling around, and an empty spot in, drumroll please, number 22. And of course, that is associated with low beam right. Put fuse in, and problem solved.

So, before I even posted, the samba helped me, an electrically challenged vanagon owner, as I anticipated being asked if I had checked the fuses, which prompted me to put aside my confusion about how that would explain my symptoms, and checked the fuses. Problem solved!

Still can't exactly picture that there are two different pathways to the low beam, but I've got a missing circuit in my brain, or something, associated with vanagon electrical visualization. . .

On to the lament. I noticed this headlight issue for the first time today, on my way back from picking up the vanagon from a shop. I had asked a local VW shop, with multiple vanagons out front all the time, to find me an ignition switched hot wire and ground, like my radio has, to connect a gps unit. (I know, basic thing for many to but my brain locks up and it becomes a 3 hour ordeal). Again, this is one of the few vanagon shops here in Boulder. Anyway, they said that they spent 2.5 hours looking for a switched hot wire and couldn't figure it out! Oh how the mighty have fallen. And somehow in the process, I suspect that the fuse was knocked out/removed and not replaced. To top it all off, the phone guy of the shop said that they don't want to work on my van because it is too modified. Part of that I understand. Yet local car audio shop Car Toys doesn't hesitate at all to find a switched hot wire. Sad day when the number of trusted shops in town dwindles like this.

Not trying to disparage the particular shop, but I'd like to be able to turn the van over to a shop for a job like this and have them be able to do it, without leaving it in worse shape than I brought it. I should mention that they didn't charge me for not finding the hot wire, as I had said that if it was going to take more than an hour, I'd prefer that they not do it. I had really brought it in for a grinding brake issue that they did charge me one hour of labor and could not fix the issue. Somehow that is more understandable, as I get it that brake grinding can be a difficult to solve mystery.

But are we really so on our own, with only the samba and Car Toys to rely on
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87 TDI Syncro Westy
81 Westy (sold)
80 Rabbit Wolfsburg (rolled)
Bike as primary transportation

[Tom Powell]

[bluebus86]

could the low beam filiment be burned out on one side? Remember each outer of the lights (1986 and up square lights) contains both a low and high beam filiment in one bulb.

When high beam is one, all four lamps are lit, the small inner bulbs are one filiment type andmonly on when high beam is on. for the outer big lamps, when high beam is one, the higher watt filiment of thw two in that lamp is on. when low beam is on, only the outer big lamps are on, but it is the lower power filiment that is on, not the higher power filiment.

Thus the symptoms you discribe are of one low beam filiment being burnt out (or bad connector, fuse etc....

So check the bulb for both filiments, if that is good, measure voltage at the headlamp connector at the bulb. bottom line is the low beam filiment should NOT be lit during high beam operation, but there is both a high and low beam filiment in each of the larger outer lamps.


PS...
cant your gps be hooked to the same power source as the radio???? you could probably get to that wire via the ashtray opening, or worst case by pulling out the radio. splice on a pigtail with fuse for your gps.
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Help Prevent VW Engine Fires, see this link.....Engine safety wire information

Stop introducing dirt into your oil when adjusting valves ... https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=683022

[pablum]

More about the "G" terminals here:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3700597#3700597

G2 and G5 are powered on with the ignition system.
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The wise man learns from history, the fool from experience.
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I see [a cat] in the street and i aim for the pest with my car. -- bluebus86

[borninabus]

as far as the shop possibly knocking a fuse out, not likely but maybe.
those fuses are a pretty snug fit.
stranger things have happened and to err is human. not out of the realm of possibility.

on the other hand, if they can't find a switched hot wire then they should not be working on any cars at all. period.
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88 Van WBX, A/T - 13 JSW TDI 6M/T - 2012 Touareg TDI Sport

[Tom Powell]

[macjack]

Thanks, all for pitching in. The missing fuse seems to have solved the headlight issue. Any need to look st the filament?
The missing fuse is so strange as I doubt it just fell out or even got knocked out. I think it was removed though that also doesn't make sense. But the way the van was rearranged told me this guy was getting oriented all over the place, behind drivers seat, for instance and under rear bench. Reasonable ideas but I told them that there was switched power at the radio, so I don't know why all that other stuff came into play. They moved some of my stuff, windshield scraper, for instance, from behind the driver seat to under the bench. Kinda weird but no biggie. I think they had never seen a van with my particular configuration so some of it was perhaps curiosity?
Kinda wierd but no biggie.
Really good to know about the g terminals. I'll keep that in mind in the future. I have a mod from the samba where the "key in" signal that hooks to the buzzer is on a relay that makes the radio and lights hot, so I can listen to the radios without the van in, and also insures that the lights are off when I leave to go skiing and I no longer return to a dead battery. Ask me how I know!
As far as the grinding, the main shop that I use, that did the TDI conversion and is still on my "generally trustworthy " list, told me that they heard the grinding in the rear. I thought that was strange, since I had been hearing it from the front. Anyway, after this current shop's inconclusive search, I recalled the obvious fact that a few years ago, when I first started hearing the grinding, I had done the Van Cafe's big brake upgrade, old Audi A4 style, in the front. A little more samba searching and saw that some times a little bit of grinding is needed to get the rotor to clear the caliper. This morning I removed the offending caliper, saw the scraping on it, and ground a little with a 7 inch wheel. Put it all back together and the grinding sound is 90% gone. So I have located the source of that problem, and may yet go back and get rid of the remaining, now very intermittent sound.
And Car Toys had my aux port wired in 5 minutes.
Thanks for all the suggestions, and again, Samba proves a reliable help!
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87 TDI Syncro Westy
81 Westy (sold)
80 Rabbit Wolfsburg (rolled)
Bike as primary transportation