headlight problems plz help

[E30 Beast]

not getting any power to my lights, had the relays and fuses checked and they both are fine anyone know of any other places i should diagnose plz help getting frustrated by the minute

[shEck3lls0]

New headlights?

[ChaseN]

Are you getting power to the headlight switch? (or more specifically, "from" the switch)

[E30 Beast]

I recently installed the US ellipsoids but i realized that the owner i bought the car from mickeu moused the headlights and what i mean by that is that the owner had the head lights hooked up to seperate relays so i tried to install the lights with the original harness and nothing do u think it could be something in the fuse box that burned out

[E30 Beast]

havent tested the headlight switch yet will do that in a moment

[ChaseN]

Yeah you need to figure out where in the circuit power is "stopping". Once you do that the fix should be easy.

[E30 Beast]

okay so i tested the headlight switch and i have power to most of the wires except a brown which i believe is ground, brown/black,and a yellow and green wire also tested the low beam relay section on the fuse box and i get no power at all what do u guys think i have a faulty fuse box?

[Ceeker]

I would work my way back from the lights. check power on the socket side. check the harness for breaks etc. Since the "guy" was messing around with the wiring it is possible he crossed something and possibly shorted somewhere. it seems you have power going to the switch and the mid point which is box isn't delivering power to the lights. remove the fuse and test sockets for the low and high beam lights to see if you are getting power to the fuse box. if so then it is tracing the wiring problem/short somewhere. then the problem lies between the box and the headlights. Which can only mean somewhere in the harness I would think.

My car is an 87 and the low beam check control circuit is built into the circuit board under the fuse box. later models had relays. I get my lows and highs on but no fogs. check fuses, checked fog switch etc. When I put the fog switch on, my low beams come on dim. So I feel your frustration.

[E30 Beast]

i did check the socket side of the low and high beam relays and i get power to the highs just not the lows and also just noticed my turn signals don't work so i guess my next step is to go through the harness and look for exposed wire thanks ceeker for all the help in the process

[rickycricketts]

I recently switched out my fuse box. take the top off and see whats going on. here are some manuals you could download. the fuse box diagrams are quite helpful http://2wenty4-seven.com/pdf/bmw_e30..._manual_v7.pdf
http://2wenty4-seven.com/pdf/BMW_E30...ice_Manual.zip - (bentley)
http://shark.armchair.mb.ca/~dave/BMW/e30/ - wiring diagrams for every year e30

http://2wenty4-seven.com/pdf/Haynes_...0_engines_.zip (haynes)

[Ceeker]

I recently switched out my fuse box. take the top off and see whats going on. here are some manuals you could download. the fuse box diagrams are quite helpful http://2wenty4-seven.com/pdf/bmw_e30..._manual_v7.pdf
http://2wenty4-seven.com/pdf/BMW_E30...ice_Manual.zip - (bentley)
http://shark.armchair.mb.ca/~dave/BMW/e30/ - wiring diagrams for every year e30

http://2wenty4-seven.com/pdf/Haynes_...0_engines_.zip (haynes)

ok I was considering changing up my fuse box to later year; how hard was it to do. I mean looking at all the wires going in let alone pushing all the pins out must be a time consuming task.

[GunMetalGrey]

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=191975&highlight=brights

read through some of that stuff real quick

[E30 Beast]

that is one hell of a good thread will try to put that to good use tomorrow

[Ceeker]

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...hlight=brights
read through some of that stuff real quick

I read through your post; lol what a hay ride..hahaha. but at least you got "grounded" results from experience and someone who actually has know how. Not to say the other posts weren't useful but there was lots of guessing and hard to weed through the good and bad.

I had a similar problem but on the drivers side of my car. Both lights were out. I changed the bulb, cleaned the contacts, and still nothing. So I didn't bother to go further because I had other things to look after. I changed my cluster because of a number of problems. once I threw the high beam switch on the full spectrum of lights came on and I have no idea what fixed it but now working fine. I just get the header panel showing my low beam is out when it is on. I think there could be still some corrosion somewhere causing a fault signal.

thx.

[StereoInstaller1]

Always ALWAYS have a can of this if you own an E30: