Dip Switch Query

[November7]

Conversation with Club members suggest that this is a known problem, but I cannot find reference to it in Blatchat. The car is a 1.8 K-Series Roadsport SV. The headlight dip switch has become very unreliable, sometimes causing total darkness on changeover from Main to Dip and vice-versa. The switch itself tests OK when removed from the car. Is there any known problem with the light relay? Which component, apart from the driver, should be replaced before I hit something in the dark?

November7

 

[SLR No.77]

If the lights turn on/off reliably and the flash circuit works fine, I suspect the fault is the switch itself even though it appears fine when removed. I'd replace it and see how it goes.

Stu.

[Jonathan Kay]

Private Message sent.

[November7]

Reporting satisfactory conclusion to the Dip-Switch problem. 

With the switch removed from the car and tested at low current with a multi-meter, all seemed well. However, when the switch was connected and the circuit tested for 12v there was evidently still a problem. Flexing the wiring at the switch tags caused the lights to fail. Time for a new switch but Caterham have none in stock. Redline came to the rescue and, over a weekend, sent a replacement switch at almost half the Caterham quoted price. Since then I have dismantled the old switch and found that a small amount of grease, lubricating the switch lever end where it contacts the internal rocker arm, had migrated to the contacts, causing arcing and poor connection. That is now all cleaned up and adjusted, so I have a spare switch.