headlights staying on

[georgejd29]

Hi there all hope you can hels I have a mk 1 1.2 merit and when you connect the battery the headlight come on on dipped beam and cannot be turned off , I have disconnected the headlight swith and they still stay on anyone have any ideas ? thanks George

[tommy8252]

Sounds like you have a short in the light wiring loom somewhere creating a permanent circuit.

[Spudly]

Only just seen this thread, on the right hand side of the dash undetray/shelf there should be a metal box with heatsink type fins on it, this is a sidelight control relay and its supposed to keep the lights on when the ignition is on, they usually fail and stop working (meaning the lights operate as normal) but yours might have failed and be leaving them on, unplug it and reconnect your battery, your lights should now be off:thumb:

[Iain]

Is that just mk1s Spud? Never heard of that before

[Spudly]

Is that just mk1s Spud? Never heard of that before



Yep its the black metal thing thats screwed to the drivers side of the shelf, all mk1s have them although its massively rare that they still work lol

[mowgli]

Yep its the black metal thing thats screwed to the drivers side of the shelf, all mk1s have them although its massively rare that they still work lol

not 100% correct spud, but close... they started fitting them on about d or e reg for the ridiculous Dim Dip european lighting rules...

but i'll agree with you about them being useless..

[General Baxter]

yep its just dipdim, just unplug the relay

[C612DNM]

Agree - dim dip relay. A stupid idea from a long time ago.... now we have Audi w*nk*r lights everywhere.

[Royston]

Agree - dim dip relay. A stupid idea from a long time ago.... now we have Audi w*nk*r lights everywhere.

and most other new cars as it is a EEC directive to be fitted(you can turn them off, it isn't mandatory to be on, has an Audi A4 hire car, 1st thing I did was turn them off:d )

Another Dim Dip sort of thing to increase the visibility :roll:

[Royston]

I could be wrong, but Dim Dip fitted to such cars from the peroid must work at MOT (luckily none of my cars has it........my 38t ERF does though:roll: ,luckily it does still work)

[MK999]

Big flashy lights to be fitted to every new car, so eventually everyone gets used to them and old cars aren't as visible. Same as wearing high vis in stupid places like our warehouse at work, only reason it's now dangerous to walk in there in a bright red shirt is all the fork lift drivers are too used to not looking for anyone because of the high vis rules!!