Headlight/brakelight problem

Hi everybody,

I have a '94 940 Wagon and I just started having some issues with my
right low beam. For a while, it would be off when I started the car,
and would then come back on on its own after a few minutes, or if I
turned the lights off and on a few times. Now, every once in a while,
that light will be fine, but one of the brake lights will go out
instead. All of my fuses seem to be fine, but I was thinking that
there might just be a bad connection or that I should clean the fuses.
How would you recommend I do that?

Could this be related to some issues I had after getting a car wash?
Right after the wash my car stalled twice, and that's never happened
before. Might have been something with the undercarriage.

Thanks for your help,
Larry

 

Check the grounds by the lights.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Sorry, I'm very inexperienced with this stuff. Could you tell me
where to look as if I were a two year old? And what exactly am I
looking for?

Thanks

 

First off let me that it's probably not one thing causing both problems.

Up at the front corners of the car are some small plates (about 2" x 2")
that are bolted to the inner fenders. These plates have terminals
sticking out of them at an angle that ground connections for various
components are pushed onto. All this is open to corrosion, (no
waterproof connectors etc.) and the resulting poor connections. Also
the terminals that connect the wires to the bulbs are a little small for
the job they're doing, so look to see if there's any heat damage in any
of the plastic around the connectors.

In the rear, it's a little simpler, the bulbs in each taillight section
share a ground wire. Find that wire and make sure that it's connections
(both ends) are clean and tight. In addition, clean the bulb and
contacts.

Also there's a round red relay mounted with the fuses that determines
when there's a failed bulb in those circuits. Sometimes it gets bad
solder connections inside it, causing intermittent problems. However,
the headlight and brakelight circuits are totally separate inside it, so
it's unlikely to be causing both problems.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)