Headlight issues.

[lloyd3]

Fall is still hanging on here, so much so that I dragged the car out for yet another 'Last day of Autumn" spin yesterday. Picked the boy up at school, drove it over to the barber for a couple of trims (after my son actually asked for a haircut! Imagine that one?). We ended the day at the local dogpark. When I fired up the car to head home, the lights didn't come on. The headlight doors opened, the dash, running and taillights came on, but no mains.  It was still dusky, and I only had to travel a few blocks so I headed off (with some trepidation, mind you). As I was rolling out of the lot, I thought to cycle the high-beam switch. Lo and behold! They came on.  Ever heard of that one before? Floorswitch issues?

[myk]

That's what I was thinking-floor switch issues.  I'm sure you've done the whole "jiggle all of the wires and connectors" dance already?

[skip68]

That's what I'm thinking.  The switch could be corroded.  You could try and clean it with wd40 or just buy a new one.  I think you can get one at AutoZone for around $10.   

[BLK 68 R/T]

  What they said.

[lloyd3]

You folks are spectacular, thank you! It's nice to have knowledgeable feedback. I seldom venture forth after dark (for lots of reasons), but got caught out this time by the recent shift back off of daylight savings. This is the first electrical issue I've ever had with the car, but it makes sense that the floor selector might be having some issues (I'm sure it's original).  I'll clean it up if I can or replace it if I need to.

[Bronzedodge]

Yes, sometimes just "exercising " it will take care of problems.  If I remember the circuit correctly, ALL the power to the headlights goes through the switch.

[Dino]

It's just a case of use it or lose it.  Periodically use all the functions of the car, run heat and a/c if applicable, and run the lights for a while to get power throught the wires and componenets, keep the corrosion at bay.  These cars don't like to sit and that goes for the individual components as well. 

[Ghoste]

100%!!!!!   

[igozumn]

My headlights would go off.....then back on occasionally.  Tracked it down to a loose connection at the firewall.  Most of the time it wasn't bad, cause I was in town.  But was on the interstate one late night when they went off and it took an additional split second to come back than normal.  Amazing how dark it was in the middle of nowhere without city lights.  Wasn't long after that I put a relay system in and fixed the firewall connection. 

[Sublime/Sixpack]

I had that happen to my old '82 Diplomat. One early morning I had no lights, so I hit the dimmer switch a couple times then the lights worked fine.