Hello,

I have a 1994 Honda Accord Coupe EX with approximately 150kmiles. During the colder seasons my headlamps do not turn on immediately after activating the switch. It may take 5 minutes or more for them to activate on their own.

I can make the lights come on by pushing/turning/manipulating the on/off switch, but the lights really don't seem to stay on by themselves for a while. Needless to say this is annoying and a bit of a hazard. When they finally turn on, they're on - no flickering, etc.

I was thinking either the switch itself or the headlamp relay. Any advice would be appreciated.

J

 

Probably the switch if you can manipulate it to turn the lights on. Once the cabin heats up, that metal probably expands just enough to make a solid connection in the switch, et voila, no problems! The switch can be a pain to replace...

 

You can remove the steering column shroud then the light switch.
Carefully open the switch up and clean out the over-excessive amount of grease inside the switch. Use a pencil eraser to polish up the contacts.

 

This morning I didn't turn the heat on in the car. I turned the thermostat down all the way (cold). The lights still turned on after about 5 minutes. Does this change anyone's mind about the switch versus relay?

 

Relay would make sense too. I would have to check my wiring diagram to see if the headlamps are indeed powered by a relay.

 

If the headlight relay the same as any other relay in the engine bay fuse box, then you can try to switch them. You might want to pull the relay and make sure that the contacts are clean.

If you have a volt meter, you can test the relay socket with the relay removed. Basically the plug for the relay has 4 slots (A-D). A/B are the larger slots and C/D are the smaller ones. I attached a pic to help.

A will always have 12V. B is the connection that the relay uses to supply the power to your headlights. Determine A from B by finding which one has 12V.
C will always have 12V. D should always have continuity to ground when the headlight switch is on. D should be an open circuit to ground with the headlight switch off. Use continuity on your volt meter, or use resistance. Infinite resistance = open circuit. Zero (or very low) = closed circuit.


[IMG]local://upfiles/5767/3EE7F059E20A40A595E29E66ED7D0872.jpg[/IMG]

 

Thanks, I'll give some of these a try when I get a chance.