S1 Elise Headlamp Relay?

S1 Elise Headlamp Relay?

Author
Discussion

M030ef00

Original Poster:

160 posts

205 months

Thursday 27th September 2012
quotequote all
My headlights won't come on when I switch them on "dip" but they do come on when switched to "dazzle."

From the manual/tech wiki it sounds like the headlamp relay 'C' is not working. Does anyone know if this is correct and how I might get it fixed quickly? (Am in central Birmingham)

(I'm embarrassingly non-technical, What the hell is a relay anyway??)

Many thanks!

Captain Muppet

8,540 posts

270 months

Friday 28th September 2012
quotequote all
I've got a degree in engineering, but electrical stuff is like magic to me. I do know that the relay is a little square box under a cover in the passenger side of the front boot thing - there should be a row of 4 (horn, cooling fan, dipped and main beam - no idea of which way round they are though).

To check if the relay is the problem - remove relay C and swap with relay D. If you now have dipped lights but no main beams it's the relay. To fix it take the relay to a car spares place and ask for a new one like it. They should be able to help (maybe even at Halfords).

Relays are switches that you turn on by providing voltage to them - in the case of the head lights you flick a switch which can only handle a tiny current and that turns on a relay that can handle enough current to turn the lights on.

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

187 months

Friday 28th December 2012
quotequote all
I've got a similar problem, but swapping the relays around doesn't seem to affect it.

My dipped beam turns on randomly by itself. It usually manifests itself in the dipped beam remaining on when I turn them off, but sometimes they just randomly turn on in the middle of the day for no reason.

I've swapped relays C and D around, but it's still happening. Worth getting a couple of new ones to check?

Scuffers

20,887 posts

279 months

Friday 28th December 2012
quotequote all
M030ef00 said:
My headlights won't come on when I switch them on "dip" but they do come on when switched to "dazzle."

From the manual/tech wiki it sounds like the headlamp relay 'C' is not working. Does anyone know if this is correct and how I might get it fixed quickly? (Am in central Birmingham)

(I'm embarrassingly non-technical, What the hell is a relay anyway??)

Many thanks!
right, do you mean then when the lights are on, only main beam works?

or do you mean the lights only come on when you use 'flash' (as in pull the stalk)?


junks

303 posts

245 months

Friday 28th December 2012
quotequote all
I've never come across a relay going down on these, nearly all problems (as I think Scuffers may have been getting at) are stalk or switch related