Dipped Head Lights HELP!

[tcflinty]

Ok a 98 2.5 D 4x4

When I put my main lights on with the engine NOT running main and dip work fine .

Now when the engine is running main bean is perfect when I put it to dip the dipped lights go to dim.

Help please its in for a MOT so need a solution asap.

Flinty

[Simon Jones]

Check for a switch on the dashboard that looks non-standard. There is a feature often fitted in Japan to dim the lights in heavy traffic (for some reason). If not that simple, then probably a dodgy earth or connection on the bulb(s). Presumably, it has been fine up to now & then something happened to cause this: have you had anything done on the van round about the time the problem occurred?

[g8dhe]

Yup the connectors themselves often corrode, if it is that then new ceramic ones are available on ebay quite cheaply.

[tcflinty]

Thanks both, its look's like your diagnosis #Simon was correct the little switch under the steering column (that little round one that I could never find out what it did) was putting my lights into dim mode .

So for those who have this little none discript switch sitting there that what it does .

I had asked a few Bongo owners if they had any idea what it was for but they also went blank on it .

Its sorted now.

MOT passed for another year .

Flinty is a happy bunny

[Driver+Passengers]

[Bob]

Useful tip, thanks all.

[Diplomat]

Wish mine had one of those switches, I'm a dim dip enthusiast. The Bongo was my first vehicle since the 80s not to have them.

Dim dip was one of the more civilised developments in the evolution of car lighting, ideal for well lit city streets and even giving orange indicators fitted adjacent to headlights a fighting chance of being discernable at a distance. Sadly it was shortlived when the Germans eventually won the war and foisted blue tinged anti-aircraft search lights onto the motoring public.

Mind you, my almost single handed efforts not to blind oncoming suburban drivers is helped considerably by the remaining vestiges of Japanese film on the lenses of already mediocre headlights. As I hardly ever drive at night away from towns, I'm happy to scrape through the M.O.T. test on brightness.

Some people are Christians, others love animals, my thing is not dazzling oncoming drivers.

Strange that they will work only on full brightness with the engine stopped. That must be specially for all the 'erberts who park the wrong way round at night with headlights on whilst dropping off and picking up passengers or going into the kebab shop (the police do this almost every evening in these parts) for twenty minutes or so.


Frank

[Simon Jones]

Thanks both, its look's like your diagnosis #Simon was correct the little switch under the steering column (that little round one that I could never find out what it did) was putting my lights into dim mode .

So for those who have this little none discript switch sitting there that what it does .

I had asked a few Bongo owners if they had any idea what it was for but they also went blank on it .

Its sorted now.

MOT passed for another year .

Flinty is a happy bunny

Excellent stuff. I knew that bit of Bongo trivia would come in handy one day