Dim/ dip relay

[haydenf]

After 24years of owning the car and never had a fuse go I haven’t looked at the fuse board until I installed new fresh air pipe and found this ( see photos)according to Steve’s Heath book and diagram it should have a relay where I have got a wire link , lights all work as they should
Which is right

[haydenf]

Link

[mk1fan]

Can't help with the issue. That is a very neat jumper cable though.

[GreenV8S]

The fuse box on the V8S looks different to yours so I suppose the electrics will be very different, but fwiw it has four relays in the fuse box: Engine cooling fan, Boot, Headlamp Main Beam, Driving lamps / fog lamps. The engine loom also the ECU main power and fuel pump relays and a tune resistor close to the fuse box. On the V8S both the engine relays are metal cased relays with flyback protection diodes. Neither my V8S or S2 had dim dip, and neither of them had any unused relay sockets in the fuse panel.

[Panamax]

Do you know what dim-dip was? If you do, you probably wouldn't be surprised that it's been deleted from your car as a result of that wire link being installed.

Essentially it was a UK initiative from about 1987 to prevent muppets driving a round at night with just their side lights on. They weren't daytime running lights (DRLs) and the headlamps came on at low level if the side lights were switched on with the engine running.

"In 1988, the European Commission successfully prosecuted the UK government in the European Court of Justice, arguing that the UK requirement for dim-dip was illegal under EC directives prohibiting member states from enacting vehicle lighting requirements not contained in pan-European EC directives. As a result, the UK requirement for dim-dip was quashed."

Some cars continued to be sold with dim-dip into the 1990s.

[poprock]

Yep. I had a few ’80s Porsches and one of the standard modifications was to remove the dim-dip relay and replace it with a bridging wire.

[haydenf]

Ok thanks for the information it make sense why there’s a link wire and not a fault in the past and someone linked out to get out of it
Thanks again

[Polly Grigora]

Is a very good fix, link cable connects Dim/Dip Relay Terminal 30 Blue/Red (dip beam fuse) to Dim/Dip Relay Terminal 87 Blue/Red (dip/main beam and flash switch) which leaves the whole dim dip circuit redundant (out of a job)