My low beam has died

Hello!

I have a Golf GLS 1980 and I recently discovered that my low beam had died. Changed the bulbs, all related fuses, relays and the light button in the panel but it still wont work. Have checked all the wiring and grounding, removed the steering wheel to check the high beam lever and I've also unplugged and checked all the connections in the fuse box and everything seems ok. The high beam still works as it should. I've used a multi meter to check if there is a connection between the bulb holder and the fuse box and it is. Is my fuse box the problem?



Thanks, best regards Bobby

Hi,

my '80 cabriolet did exactly the same thing yesterday morning on the way to work.

It was the internals in the switch at the base of the stalk.

It's quite fiddly to dismantle, but not too hard to fix. You need to remove the steering wheel, which reveals three small screws, then remove the two stalks and separate them. After that the sliding swith can be unclipped and opened, but don't drop all the internals.

Basically a combination of worn and dirty contacts had made one of the brass crossover pieces get hot and get stuck in its channel rather than sliding up and down to meet the brass tracks.

With the help of a craft knife everything is now working better, but I will probably need to replace the switch at some point.

Robin

Thanks for the tip! I tried it today but unfortunately it didn't work so I'm still stuck with not having a low beam.





Any other suggestions? =)

It could have something to do with the pin on the rear of the fuse box, I had it on mine as the pin and connectors had become loose. You'd have to track the wire back but iirc it's a fat white one and a fat orange one

unplug the 4 pin flasher switch connector and loop a bit of wire from the red/yellow to the yellow. if the lights come on its the switch, if not chase the yellow wire and check the pins at the fusebox

Hi,

mine looked exactly like your first photo, and after a good clean and some vaseline it works like new. Did you clean up the contacts carefully, especially the ones under the white cross piece?

Robin

jellybelly and rubjonny: I will check the wires and do as you suggest.

Robin: I took out every pin and cleaned them up good and then put some new electric grease on them, but still the same problem. Is there anyway to polish them maybe? Would very fine sandpaper damage them?

Thanks for your help! =)

Yes, I cleaned mine up with fine emery paper after scraping the contacts clean with a knife blade. I also made sure all three of teh small brass contacts could slide freely in and out on their springs.

Robin

Hi guys! Guess what, I've sorted the low beam issue! I did as you told me and dismantled the flasher switch once again and gave it a thorough cleaning and I also replaced some of the cable going to the switch because it looked funky. And now it works again!

Thanks for all your help, really appreciate it! =)









Best regards Bobby

Hi,

that's exactly the part that was burnt on mine - glad it worked.
I guess it's probably a temporary solution, and I've picked up another stalk just in case, but mine's still working fine.

PS I like the colour - viper green?

Robin

Yes, we will see how long it will work, but at least now I know what the problem is =)

Thank you, no the color is Bali (L62A).



Best regards Bobby

what you may want to do now is fit one of those relay kits, that way all the electrical load is taken off the ignition, headlight and flasher switches so they should last much longer

Well worth fitting a headlight kit as it did make a lot of difference to the brightness of my lights, now I can see in the dark!