Re: '94 Acclaim - No Headlights in Cold Weather

There is STILL no headlamp relay in a 1994 Acclaim, as delivered from the

> factory. Here are the wiring diagrams: > >
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This is the best display of diagrams I have seen. You set this up as a toggle between regular size and a big, expanded size of the diagram. I just click the mouse and it toggles regular and large size. It would be nice if this is a new trend for showing diagrams over the internet rather than separate frames. I had not noticed this before anywhere else. This is the quickest way and easiest to follow tracing a circuit by zooming in and out.

Reply to
treeline12345
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Thanks for the drawings and explanations. I am a novice, but now I understand what I have to look for, and I may have a good opportunity to check this out soon. The morning temperatures here in Pennsylvania have been in the single digits lately, and my headlights only come on in the afternoon.

Is there an easy way to access the headlamp switch? To take readings do I remove the switch and probe sockets or do I probe through the insulation into the wire?

Is there an easy way to access the multifunction switch? Is it located somewhere on the steering column?

Reply to
Gary Kaucher

I find myself wondering what happens if you start the car when cold, turn the headlamps on (and they don't come on), turn the heater on full blast and wait. Will the headlamps come on at some point?

NEVER probe through the insulation!

To remove the headlamp switch:

-Remove the main dashboard trim panel surrounding the instrument cluster and containing the two centre dash vents. This whole trim piece simply pulls off; get your fingers under the inner edges adjacent to the instrument cluster and pry it rearward until one or two of the clips disengage, then move around the trim piece pulling carefully but firmly rearward, and eventually the piece will pop free. Lift it away from the dash and put it in the back seat.

-Remove the trim panel surrounding the headlamp switch. This, too, simply pulls off.

-Remove the philips head screws holding the black plastic headlamp switch panel to the dashboard. The panel and switch assembly can then be pulled away from the dash. At this point you should be able to access the wires plugged into the headlamp switch. You can 'backprobe' them (insert voltmeter probe alongside the wire of interest, into its plug cavity, making contact with its terminal without damaging the insulation).

If you need to replace the headlamp switch, carry on as follows:

-Disconnect the battery negative cable from the battery.

-Find the small round-headed, spring-loaded pushbutton on the side or bottom of the headlamp switch. Press and hold it in towards the headlamp switch firmly (it helps to tape a coin to your finger or thumb). While holding it in, firmly pull the headlamp knob until it disengages from the switch and pulls free. Set it aside.

-Remove the headlamp switch from the switch panel.

Installation is the reverse of removal.

It's not difficult, but you will need one special tool: A tamperproof Torx driver (or tamperproof Torx driver bit). Size is either T15 or T20. A regular Torx won't fit; it must be the tamperproof type which has a hole in the centre of the driver or bit.

-Using the tamperproof Torx driver, remove the single screw located in the middle of the bottom of the steering column cover.

-Using a conventional driver, remove the two or four fasteners located at the corners of the bottom of the steering column cover.

-Grasp the bottom half of the steering column cover and pull it off of the column if it does not drop off on its own. Set it aside.

-If the car is equipped with tilt steering wheel, grasp the tilt release lever shaft carefully with pliers and unscrew it. Remove and set aside.

-Lift the top half of the steering column cover off and set it aside.

The multifunction switch is now exposed. Two screws hold it to the steering column, and one screw secures its wiring plug.

Installation is the reverse of removal.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

I hope you are joking and if you aren't the image zooming is a "feature" built into internet explorer 6 whenever you load an image file that isn't embedded into a web page. It shows up as a button in the lower right hand corner of the image when you hover the mouse pointer over the image. To turn it off you go to: Tools Menu>Internet Options>Advanced tab>scroll down and "Enable Automatic Image Resizing" will be the first thing listed under "Multimedia"

Reply to
Daniel Armstrong

And the browsers used by those of us not so stupid as to use Exploder.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

I am not stupid and I use IE. I would use Firefox more if it didn't have a problem with the executable looping and maxing out my processor at times. I have even had it where the executable was still running looped and burning proc cycles even though the program window was closed. I had to kill the little bugger with task manager.

Reply to
Daniel Armstrong

No comment.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

The key to using it for me has been to 1. turn off the built in popup blocker, 2. use the google toolbar, and 3. always read everything twice to make sure it is legit before clicking on that stupid yellow bar at the top that warns the noobs that the site they are visiting just might want to install something. I have never had any spyware on my computer and AVG 7 free edition quite happily throws any and all virii (usually from java) in the virus vault for me to delete. If you are the kind that enjoys clicking "OK" on every little thing that pops up then yes IE will have your system trashed in a matter of minutes. The thing that really pi$$e$ me off is the number of programs that want to install the damn yahoo toolbar. Adobe reader of all things had the damn yahoo toolbar in its list of available updates.

Reply to
Daniel Armstrong

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I have seen voltage on A3 when the headlights are working properly. I haven't seen voltage when the headlights are turned on, but not working, even though the parking lights are on. Which doesn't make sense. I must not be probing correctly. From what you say, if the parking lights are on, there should be voltage on A3. When the problem arises, I don't get too much time to probe. The lights seem to come on in a few minutes. I will try this again when it gets cold, and the only thing that lights up is the parking lights.

L2 definitely does not show any voltage when the headlamps refuse to work. So I started up the car and turned on the heater with the intention of heating things up to see if the lights came on, and the lights came on in about 30 seconds, before there was any heat. L2 read 13.5 volts with the engine on, and 11 volts when I turned the engine off. With the engine off, the lights will work until the car sits idle for awhile in cold (below 22 degrees Fahrenheit) weather. I will change the headlamp switch and see if all these "peculiarities" go away.

This may be premature, but I will ask anyway. I mentioned that my mechanic changed the PCM in the course of resolving a fault code 41 issue. You mentioned that another source of headlamp problems can be Daytime Running Lights found in Canadian vehicles. My car is not a Canadian vehicle and has never had DRL. But is it possible that my mechanic might have installed or configured something so the car "thinks" it is Canadian and has DRL? Are different components (PCM's) used in the Canadian cars?

Reply to
Gary Kaucher

You're right, it doesn't.

Should be!

I've still got your headlamp switch as a primary suspect, with firewall pass-through connection and beam-selector switch as secondary suspects.

Nope. The PCM doesn't know if the car has DRLs or not; on these cars, the DRL module and associated wiring are completely independent.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Sorry to interrupt here...

There's a good possibility that you aren't getting consistent contact on your VOM positive lead to the headlight switch A3 wire. This would cause the erroneous test results as you surmised.

I noticed a circuit breaker built into the headlight switch that trips from excess current through A3. Failed CBs can cause the flaky, "completely on one second", "completely off the next" situation you are experiencing. One thing to think about is that if this is your culprit, you may be able to tap the switch and get the lights to flicker. Also visually check any high current connections for signs of overheating if you are removing them anyway.

Toyota MDT in MO

Reply to
Comboverfish

I'm not joking. What you are describing is interesting and informative, maybe for me in the future, but not really completely on target. I liked the implementation. It was smooth and flawless. Usually I get this with Java. But I was impressed that a simple web page has have two sizes, really all that was needed. One to see what I am in the diagram and another to see what is actually being "said."

I have not see this toggle in many places. Usually it's multiple clicks on images - annoying waste of clickery. In this case, it's a toggle. I don't use IE except when I have Flash to display and it's already checked as you described almost - it's not the first thing under multimedia in my particular system. Is what you describe a pure toggle? That's what I was referring to. I have not come across toggles much. That's one click to expand and one click to compress and one click to expand and one click to compress. Who me joking?

Reply to
treeline12345

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