Driving home in teh rain today in my 1990 Miata I notice thatteh heradligths are flipping up and down all by themselves. They keep doing that even if i shut off the ignition. I had to disconnect the battery to get it to stop. What gives? The lights themselves work normally. It's just that the flippers keep bringing them up and down over and over no matter what I try to do to stop it. Did the rain cause the motor to short and flip out on me?
Headlights Flipping OuT. Help!
May 19, 2009
4 Replies
Probably. Or you've got a bad ground. Or, the connector between the wiring harness and the headlight motor is bad. That's what caused the same problem on my '90.
And you could have pulled the fuse rather than disconnect the battery - it's the big green (IIRC) 30 amp in the fuse box in the engine compartment.
Iva & Vixen
2004 Classic Red Nor more winkin' Miata
Could be, one possible suspect is the dashboard switch, if it happens again you might try stopping, turn off the headlights and then raise and lower them several times using the dashboard pushbutton, that
*might* clean the contacts enough (if the switch is the problem) to get things working again.I had a problem with the headlights not raising as I turned them on, it was VERY intermittent but replacing the switch fixed it.
The technical commission of the Mazda MX-5 Club of the Netherlands has done intensive investigation to this matter and we've found out that most of the times the culprit is the grease that, after years of use, start running insite the dashboard-switches behind the steering wheel. Ever since we've solved many jumping headlights.
If only one headlight is jumping: You'll have to remove the steering wheel and switch-package behind the wheel, open the switches and clean the contacts thoroughly. After that re-apply a *small* amount of grease at the joints and reinstall the lot. I'm quite sure your problems will be solved.
If always both headlights are jumping: check the headlight-motor relay for continuity. Just one relay powers both motors so this is the first station. Is the relay is OK check the switches as above.
Good luck!
Jeroen Feelders Technical Commissioner Mazda MX-5 Club of the Netherlands
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Thanks for your responses. Once the day and the car dried out the problem was fixed.
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