MOT Joy with some reservtions

[lookingfora944]

Well my car just sailed through it's MOT. I was a little worried as you are about old cars but as I had seen to the advisories on the last MOT over the year, except the minor oil leak, I need not have been. Except for one thing - a gremlin in the left main/dipped beam.

I took it to an old guy in North London, someone advised me that he was really chilled out and tends to give old cars the benefit of the doubt.

All was looking good, the emissions especially, he commented that they were excellent for a car of this age. And overall the car was in very good nick, which I have been told now on several occasions, apart from the outer sill which are pretty much shot.
Thats when my old headlight problem started kicking it. There is a strange problem that when you go from dipped to full beam, sometimes one or both fuses blow randomly. Sometimes the fuses don't blow and the dipped stops working. So he told me he was very sorry but he would have to fail me on that. So we tried fixing it, fiddling with fuses and the wiring etc and it started working fine before I left so he then passed me as it seemed to have fixed itself. Very strange behaviour. Has anyone else experienced this kind of weirdness with the lights before?

Now I have MOT and 6 months tax, I am going to have to put it up for sale as I have twins due in November. I will miss this car so much but still have a bit of time left with it

 

[Hairyarse]

Sorry you have to sell, enjoy it whilst you can

Not had any issue before on any car with the lights like that, can't help I'm afraid

 

[simkin911]

Problems with the indicator stalk can cause intermittent issues with the lights - especially going from dipped to main beam (or at least that was my main symptom).

 

[bmnelsc]

Blowing fuses when switching from dip to high suggests a short circut. I would think the indicator stalk which controls dip to high and back would be on the "low voltage" side of the circut and be controlling the headlight relays - have to look the wiring diagrams to be sure.

I'd start looking for corrosion in the connectors or frayed wires in the headlight harness from the relay forward. That the headlights started working after "we tried fixing it, fiddling with fuses and the wiring etc and it started working fine before I left so he then passed me as it seemed to have fixed itself" points to a loose or corroded connection or perhaps a broken wire. At least you're not burning bulbs which is a good thing....

 

[lookingfora944]

Thanks for the advice. The voltmeter indicated that power was getting to the fuse box and the relay was working fine so I stripped the black covering wire in the headlight harness and lo and behold, the wires inside were all frayed and were touching randomly when the lights were raised or lowered and blowing the fuses. It didn't help that the wire was not in the little holding clip on the headlight. All fixed now and clipped in so thanks for the advise.
Pretty much ready to put it up for sale now though. Will put an ad up here first when I get round to taking photos