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No Headlights


Regis

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The other day I started up my car to head home and noticed that my parking lights were on but no headlights. Strange. I checked everything that has to do with the headlights and still nothing. I pulled back on the stalk to see if I could engage the High beams. They came on but only as long as I held the stalk back. So it would seam that it was an issue in the stalk?

I drove home with the fog lights on and they were pretty much useless. So I get about half way and on a stretch of back road and with nobody coming the other way, I pulled back on the stalk and held the high beams on. After about a mile I came to a traffic light with other cars so I let off of the stalk and what do you know........everything was back to normal. Strange. Anyone have a clue as to what happened?

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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It sounds like the problem is in the headlight dimmer switch in the steering column. It is not a difficult job - it does require a steering wheel puller and a lock plate compressor in order to remove the circlip that retains the turn signal canceling cam. Both tools are easily fabricated or some of the parts store chains will loan them.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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The flash-to-pass circuitry associated with the stalk completely bypasses the current path supplied by the under-hood headlamp relay that is energized by the dash headlamp switch.

So . . . . if either the headlamp relay or the headlamp switch (or related wiring) were bad, you'd enjoy (?) exactly the symptoms you described.

I'd suggest swapping the headlamp relay with a similar one under the hood. If, one day, functions associated with the "donor" become intermittent you will have likely identified an intermittent relay.

Regards,

Warren

EDIT: Or maybe swapping relays will "clean up" the contacts in the relay center and you'll never have a problem again. :)

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There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises

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Another thought on that matter:

The flash-to-pass switch is meant to handle large amounts of current for short periods of time.

Now I don't have any specific info on this, but I'd suspect it's *NOT* designed to handle large amounts of current for extended periods.

Driving with the stalk held back for extended periods of time might be a bad thing.

Regards,

Warren

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There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises

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Is there a relay for the headlamps?

If not then the headlight switch or the multifunction/turn signal switch is probably worn out.

Fords seen to wear out the multifunction switch often. Not sure if GM is similar.

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Is there a relay for the headlamps?

Maybe I was unclear.

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Posted Image

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises

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I drove home with the fog lights on and they were pretty much useless. So I get about half way and on a stretch of back road and with nobody coming the other way, I pulled back on the stalk and held the high beams on. After about a mile I came to a traffic light with other cars so I let off of the stalk and what do you know........everything was back to normal. Strange. Anyone have a clue as to what happened?

I had a situation once (not in the Caddy) where the lights wouldn't come on unless I pulled the stalk back several times with crossed fingers. The issue, IIRC, was the plunger connected to the end of whatever the stalk controlled. I had to drop the lower hush panels and looked while moving the stalk from above. Once I replaced the plunger everything returned to normal.

I'm not sure if this relates to newer Caddys but certainly worth a shot if you're in the diagnostic stage.

Mark

<!--fonto:Arial--><span style="font-family:Arial"><!--/fonto-->2007 DTS Performance - 50K

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As a matter of fact, I <i>am</i> driving 70 MPH in a phone booth.

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Thanks for the replies fellas. The headlights have been working fine since last weeks incident. Perhaps something was sticking/stuck and holding the stalk back allowed it to reset or reseat. Or maybe some grease worked its way onto one of the contacts and holding the stalked burned it off? I've had the smoking steering wheel "issue" quite a few times this year and perhaps some of the grease traveled to new places. Who knows but the stalk and lights are clicking and working fine now. But I'll keep the info on this thread handy should the lights decide to poop out again. I've been very fortunate that many issues have been fixed with simple little tricks. Hopefully my good luck will hold for some time to come.

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update.

The headlights went out again this morning. Lost both Hi and Lo beams. Tried the same trick that worked last time to no avail. Got on the horn with Ken and he confirmed what KHE stated about the dimmer switch. Although he's fairly certain that the steering wheel doesn't need to be removed. He was looking at the part and a blow up of its location on his screen as we talked. I'm waiting for his return call on part availability. How convenient was it that a Napa guy was standing right there as we were discussing the correct part? I'll post an update when it's all set.

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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You may be able to remove a panel on the steering column to gain access - that would be a lot better than removing the guts of the column.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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I believe that is Ken's plan. He just called me back and had the part in his hand. The part was nowhere to be found locally but another town had one left. The Napa guy drove over and got it asap. Now that's service! The switch is getting replaced first thing tomorrow morning. I guess it's a good time to give Ken his Christmas bonus.

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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Update.

The dimmer switch wasn't the issue and neither was the relay. Turns out there was a break in the ground wire (yellow) that runs from the relay to the switch. Ken wasn't able to locate the actual break but the volt meter confirmed a dead connection. My guess is right where it goes through the firewall. After running a new length of yellow wire and making the ground connections the head lights work again.

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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