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| Grenadier Member Since: 23 Jul 2014 Location: The foot of Mont Blanc... Posts: 5883   
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Evening all.
Having problems with my OS headlight and am after some advice please. I have an LED unit with halo running light, on a 2011 Puma. The halo is tied to the sidelight which are wipac LED. Currently I’m experiencing the following, Using standard headlight switch gear: 1. Switch turned to sidelights, NS side light and halo work, OS side light and halo don’t work. Indicator works both LHS and RHS. 2. Switch to main beam, NS main light, halo and sidelight all work normally, OS only the main light comes on, still no halo or sidelight. Interestingly, the indicator works to the LHS but NO LONGER works for the RHS. 3. Switch to full beam and everything is the same as action 2. Finally, whilst the horn works, it is a very dull and quiet horn, rather than a hearty toot. These problems have been simmering in the background for a year or so, but the complete cut out of the halo/sidelights and the indicator problem, are a first. So, is it: A. Earth (I was going to try and look at the behind-dash earthing point, but it’s such a big job I have avoided it to date) B. Wiring (lose, frayed, short circuited) C. Headlamp unit? D. Switch gear…. Thoughts would be hugely appreciated, especially what order I should check things in….  Monsieur Le Grenadier
I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list..... 2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey |
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12th Mar 2025 5:34pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20673 
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As IanH mentions.
A Multimeter is your friend here, you might be able to get access to a H4 headlight plug from behind. But if not, you can tame a headlight out, just don’t drop it or alter the beam angle. From there, identify the dipped and main feeds, see what voltage they are showing, with using the negative probe on the engine block, the positive on each feed. See what voltage is coming through there. If that looks okay, try checking from the negative on the connector to each feed. If the voltage is lower than expected, then it’s little the ground side. If the voltage seems out on both power feeds then it might be the stalk. But you can use continuity checks to trace back the location of the fault from point A, to point B. And for any breaks etc, extremely common is a high impedance connection. If you are getting a fault on different circuits at once, then a common ground likely has either a break or high impedance grounding point. So in effect, it’s best to find which side the issue is coming from, it could be live or ground, once you’ve identified which side you can trace from there. Usually it’s ground related. Bear in mind LED’s are more sensitive to voltage changes, and also more sensitive to poor grounding as they have a low current load compared to incandescent. So with that they are more sensitive to high impedance / poor connections. If you find at the H4 headlight connector everything checks out, then it might be a fault with the light. You can check the light on the bench or in situ if you want, even a 9v pp3 battery should do the trick to cheek if you want, most DC LED’s are regulated to take input of 9 to 30v. If you want you can add an additional ground, you can which can be useful permanent or temporary. But if it does solve any issue, you really ought to fix the original fault and trace it, then add the additional ground, not just add the new ground as a fix, as that alters the ground path anyway. My guess is ground fault, if not then stalk, failing that headlight itself in this order. Perhaps there is some ideas in there for you. Good luck. TheThunder Rolls🇬🇧🇺🇸
⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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13th Mar 2025 8:54pm |
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