Roadside headlight help - only have flash to pass

[szurszewski]

My headlight decided it was only going to be high beam regardless of where I put the switch. A couple years ago, I had no light at all unless I pushed the flash to pass in, and cleaning the inside of the switch helped that.

 

I opened up the switch here in the motel parking lot, and cleaned it up but no luck. The contact solder seemed to have melted/rearranged itself to the point where it was jumping things I think should be separate, so I pulled a little blob out.

 

That took me from high all the time, to only having flash to pass. I also noticed in diagnosing that I had turn and brake but no tail light - that seems to be a bulb. I am heading over to the truck stop across the way for a tail bulb and will see if they have a replacement headlamp as well in case the low is just burned out.

 

Meanwhile, in case that's no the case, and since you'll all be snug in bed soon (and I have to ride home 400 ish miles to Portland either tomorrow night or very early the next morning) any thoughts? Fuses all seem fine, but I did not pull them all (diagram I have does NOT list a fuse for headlight - is there one? I mean, there must be - so which is it?).

 

Posting pics of the switch semi-opened up (don't want to go further and shoot springs and bearings across the parking lot - I can always rig the flash to pass to switch to be held in until I get home...so I can lose the springs in my garage instead). The little screw shows where the blob of solder was, and with the screw there I have high beam only in all switch positions.

 

Please post your thoughts - I'm going to get food while I'm out as well, so I'll be back in an hour or two.

 

Thanks!

josh

 

 

[roger 04 rt]

Tail Light is Fuse 2

 

High and Low Beam are unfused but through Load Relief Relay.

 

Suspect burned out Low Beam (or Ground) and faulty High Beam Switch.

 

Best I can do at 11 p.m.

 

Good Luck

 

 

[szurszewski]

Tail Light is Fuse 2

 

High and Low Beam are unfused but through Load Relief Relay.

 

Suspect burned out Low Beam (or Ground) and faulty High Beam Switch.

 

Best I can do at 11 p.m.

 

Good Luck

 

 

Thanks - seems pretty good for 11pm - it's not quite that late here yet and I can't think of anything better. I got a new bulb, and also some jumper wires/test leads. Thanks to those, I established that the current bulb is good and will illuminate both low and high.

 

The socket on the plastic is cracked around the contact I believe is the ground (left side, if you are looking at it from the saddle), so I tried bending the corresponding bulb pin out, plugging the other two into the socket, and then jumping the bent pin to good ground. Doing that got me the same results: only lights with flash to pass. So, I assume that means either bad switch or bad wire somewhere between switch and socket. Could it also be the relay?

 

In any case, I put it all back together and ziptied the switch so it is in the flash to pass position, which will get me home legally. Obviously I'll try not to ride in the dark on the way, which I think will work out, as I don't want to dazzle oncoming traffic with my high beam.

 

Once I'm home I'll be able to investigate more properly - but probably not until September, as I'm leaving a couple days after my return for a week in NYC.

 

So, if anyone cares to share a trouble shooting flow chart type of idea for this, I'd love to hear it!

 

josh

 

ps - positives: I got a new tail light, and didn't have to get hit or pulled over to find out I needed one, and I now have a spare headlight bulb on the bike.

[Galactic Greyhound]

Hi Josh,

 

Sounds like your High/Low switch has overheated and burnt out so taking it further apart is unlikely to be fruitful.

 

The Load Relief Relay and headlight Ground is working OK if you can still use the Flash - the Horn is also supplied via the relay.

 

Probably the best thing to do while on the road is a jumper or rewire on the faulty switch to give you a permanent Low beam.

 

To do this, on the High/Low switch, the High beam wire is White (56a), the Low beam wire is Yellow (56b), the power feed (+12v) from the Load Relief Relay contact is White/Yellow (56).

 

You can either bridge the White/Yellow wire to the Yellow wire on the switch contacts or cut the wires and twist them together with some insulating tape.

 

Good luck!

 

PS: Is there a non-standard headlight bulb fitted which might have caused the burn-out? The bulb should be 60/55 Watt H4 Halogen.

 

[David R]

I had switch go bad for low beam on the road. I took it apart and managed to scrape and clean enough to get home.

 

I DID drop the screw in the sand of my campsite. Found it after a long while.

 

When I got home I took a solder gun, headted the low beam pin and pushed it into the switch JUST A LITTLE MORE. Problem resolved. That was 2 years ago.

 

Should have just bought a new switch, but what the heck.

 

Best of luck. If you have to, you seem to be smart enough to switch the wires on the bulb so low beam works and you can drive at night.

 

Have a safe trip home.

 

David

[dirtrider]

Morning Josh

 

Check the bulb first if OK then move on to power flow.

 

 

As a rule the problem is in the contacts inside that L/H side hi/low switch but before condemning that verify correct power coming into that L/H side hi/low switch.

 

Your L/H (hi/ low/FTP) switch actually has 2 power inputs. One comes over from the R/H handle bar side. On the R/H side there is a jumper (USA model) that replaces the European on/off switch. That is the main power coming in for the lights.

 

There is also a second power feed direct from the load relief relay & that is to power the flash to pass function.

 

So check the 2 power inputs--

 

 

white/ yellow wire = main power input from R/H jumper (used for normal low beam & high beam operation)

 

green/ blue wire = power in for flash to pass (only)

 

[roger 04 rt]

Hi Josh,

Too bad about the problems but you've figured out the tail light and you can get the high beam to come on with the switch in the flasher position so that tells you that the Load Relief Relay is okay.

 

This will be a lot easier to debug with a Voltmeter and some spray contact cleaner.

 

Looking at the BMW CD, here's what I see:

 

1. The High Beam, Low Beam, Speedometer Light, and Tach Light are all require the Load relief relay (Green Wire Blue Stripe).

 

2. Since the High Beam comes on with the Flasher, you can be pretty sure you have a ground on the bulb, a good Load Relief Relay and a good wire (White) going from the Left hand High Beam Switch to the Bulb.

 

3. On the Right Hand side you have a Light switch that turns on the Low Beam and High Beam. Power comes in on a Green Blue wire and goes out of the switch two ways. a) a Grey Blue wire to the Speedometer and Tach lights and a White Yellow wire to the Left Hand side. Do the Instrument lights turn on? If not, check there for 12V on the Green Blue wire, and then with the switch on, check for 12V on the Grey Blue wire (intrument lights) and White Yellow wire (goes to left hand High Beam switch). If you don't have 12V on those wires, but you do on the Green Blue, the switch is your problem.

 

4. If you don't find the problem on the Right Hand side in the Light On/Off switch. Go to the Left Hand side. On this side here are the wires:

 

Green: connects to Low Beam.

 

White: connects to High Beam.

 

Green Blue: Goes through the High Beam flasher switch to the White wire to the High Beam.

 

White Yellow: Check for 12V here at the Left switch with the Right Hand light switch on. It then goes through the High Beam switch to the High Beam on White wire or to the Low Beam on the Green wire.

 

The solder appearing to melt could have happened if the switch contacts developed high resistance leading to heat and failure.

 

RB

[szurszewski]

Thanks for the replies. I do have a standard bulb fitted (PO had a crazy 80/110 or something like that when i got the bike, but I replaced it back in 06).

 

I am on my way to work and just packed up my hotel room. I will try the rewire for low beam before i head home if it looks like I will be riding at night.

 

Once home I will try to check both power inputs - my bike has the euro switch on the right bar.

 

Ok. Typing on my phone is slow and I have to get to class. Thanks all!

josh

[szurszewski]

Hello again - got home in late August, parked the bike, and then had many many weeks of lots of work and little time. Last week I finally got time to try out the above suggestions.

 

Upon more careful inspection of the switch (pics to follow) it is clear that the wire/pin brining in power heated to the point of melting the surrounding plastic, which allowed the pin/contact to back out a couple of millimeters.

 

I tried cleaning up the area (of goo, debris and melted/deformed plastic) and pushing the pin/contact back into place, but that didn't work (I mean, I was able to re-seat the pin, but the contact area was deformed to the point where this was not enough to restore function).

 

Before I put on a new switch, since electricity in my mind is just barely on the periphery of being "science" as opposed to "magic," can anyone explain to me why this happened? Jumping power around the melted area showed that everything else seems to be working properly, and I am currently running "low beam only" via a small jump wire.

 

pics below show both sides of the melted area - dislocated pin is the far right just at the edge of the over exposed/lit area - (sorry for the iPhone in a dark garage quality) and then two views of the actual headlight rocker portion of the switch, just in case anyone wanted to know what they would find if they took it all the way apart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dirtrider]

Afternoon josh

 

 

The usual cause of burnt or deformed contacts is heat. That heat comes from resistance & the resistance comes from poor contact either due to oxidation, corrosion, or weak springs, or contact wear, or all together.

 

[szurszewski]

Afternoon josh

 

 

The usual cause of burnt or deformed contacts is heat. That heat comes from resistance & the resistance comes from poor contact either due to oxidation, corrosion, or weak springs, or contact wear, or all together.

 

First, thank you again so much for all the insight you provide all of us here! As a colleague and sometimes project manager of mine often says, you're worth money (of course she never actually follows that up by giving me any money, so I guess that's pretty much like we are to you). Perhaps we should start sending you checks.

 

As for the switch, that was the conclusion my mind was reaching for as well, but with no real knowledge to back it up I didn't want to put in replacement and have it melt down as well. I'll go ahead now and proceed with switch replacement. I'll go check the parts fiches online, but I'm assuming the switch parts are only sold as a whole - too bad as the rest of my switch gear there is not only functional, but now really clean!

 

josh

 

 

[dirtrider]

Afternoon josh

 

Before spending big money at BMW you might try Beemer Boneyard or E-Bay for that switch assembly.

 

The other option MIGHT be to rig up a power relay to power the headlight & use what switch function you have left to operate that relay as a low beam/high beam function. This wound depend on what contact functionality your switch has remaining & how much effort you are willing to put into it.

 

[szurszewski]

Afternoon josh

 

Before spending big money at BMW you might try Beemer Boneyard or E-Bay for that switch assembly.

 

The other option MIGHT be to rig up a power relay to power the headlight & use what switch function you have left to operate that relay as a low beam/high beam function. This wound depend on what contact functionality your switch has remaining & how much effort you are willing to put into it.

 

The Boneyard doesn't have one available right now, but I will definitely be on the lookout for a used one (I won't be riding enough in the near future to really miss the high beam option much, so I've got time - and I will DEFINITELY be stripping down the used switch for a thorough cleaning). As to rigging up a relay, while I'm not opposed to the effort, I'm not sure I'm knowledgeable enough to figure that out...and since I'd have to run wiring between the switch and, presumably, the fairing where I'd put the relay, I'd probably be better off just replacing the whole switch gear assembly.

[OoPEZoO]

I know where you could find one in good working order

[szurszewski]

I know where you could find one in good working order

 

PM sent - thanks.

josh