HELP: Total Headlight failure

Hi guys,

I was driving home late last night, when I hit the high-beams on a dark road to get a better look at the curve coming up. Much to my shock, ALL lights went out. There I was, doing 80 in a turn on a dark road with NO LIGHTS. I frantically hit low and high beams and NOTHING. Turned the headlight switch on and off. Still nothing. When I pulled back on the high beams, it lit up. I drove like that for a little while before it occurred to me to hit the driving lights. They worked.

When I got home, I started research and this seems to be a common thing. Most folks report hitting the high beams (push forward) and then...total darkness. Most folks just replace both bulbs and they are good to go.

However, I want to know if this is a failure on the selector switch. Anybody else isolate the high-beam stalk as an issue?

Did you lose anything else? When I lost headlights except for pulling on the stalk I had also lost windshield wipers and A/C blower. It was the ignition switch.

The headlights are all individually fed and fused. The only common items are the selector switch and the ignition switch. I have heard of a lot of ignition switch failures ( I had one) but no light selector switch failures. I'm going with the ignition switch.

Try wiggling the ke a llittle toward start or a little toward off and see if the lights come on. In my case, turning it a little toward off got everything working.

Good Luck,

Al

if only headlights, what would i suspect?

1. relay
2. switch

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

The common symptoms include both headlight bulbs burning out, which is why I suspected the stalk switch.

I didn't touch the ignition switch or anything other than the high beams

Initially the low beams would not come on when I turned the switch. I could pull the lever and get the high beams to come on, and after a few pulls the low beams would finally turn on. After a few more days, I could not get the low beams to come on at all - like you I had to run with my fog lights. Ended up replacing the switch - directions on Pedro's site are excellent - and the problem was fixed.

About a year & a half ago (fall of 2011), I noticed that my headlights wouldn't come on one evening as I was heading out from home to go somewhere and could not get the headlights to activate. So, I left my '00 S home and took another car. A few days later, I took my 986S in to the local dealer who diagnosed it as a bad headlight switch. They ordered a new switch, and I got it replaced a few days later. Headlights came on perfectly again with no other parts needed. I got 11.5 years out of the original factory-fitted switch. Don't know what the 'norm' is, but I thought this was a reasonable service length.

Regards, -rick.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."