[s-cars] E-Code High Beams Stuck On

[Mike Sylvester]

Paul,

I'm not understanding your license plate light theory.
A relay is an electrically operated mechanical switch.
It shouldn't matter what load is present on the contacts.
The load from the license plate light should be insignificant compared
to the load of the high beam lights.

The contacts in a relay will eventually fail. They are a wear out item.
Every time you open the contacts there is a little spark.
This can damage the contacts. It can make them have poor contact or they
can get welded together and not disconnect.

When you redid your wiring, did you replace the relays?



Mike

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [s-cars] E-Code High Beams Stuck On
> From: "weski at verizon.net" <weski at verizon.net>
> Date: Sun, October 26, 2014 9:19 pm
> To: S-Car-List at audifans.com
> 
> 
> Patient is my 95 S6 with e-code headlights.
> 
>   I've been running the e-codes for over 10 years.  They have always 
> been relayed - one relay for highs, one for lows, and one for fogs.  
>  From the beginning, the high beams would not turn off immediately when 
> I turned them off - some times they would stay on and other times they 
> would turn off after 20-30 seconds.  Needless to say the on-coming 
> traffic was not appreciative.  For a quick fix, I installed a license 
> plate socket under my hood and added it into the passenger high beam 
> circuit.  This worked great by draining off just enough power after I 
> turned the highs off to actually turn them off with less than a 1 second 
> delay.
> 
> Fast forward 10 years.
> 
> I've been having trouble this summer with keeping all lights working 
> consistently - highs, lows, and fogs.  The relays and wiring was getting 
> somewhat corroded in places so I redid all the wiring this weekend and 
> also upgrade all the bulbs to Sylvania Osram SilverStar H1, H1, H3 bulbs 
> (I had been running these in my lows and they were noticeably brighter 
> than what ever bulb that came with the headlights and I wanted the same 
> temperature and light level for all lights).  After I was done, once 
> again the highs would not turn off when switched off - even with the 
> extra drain of the little license plate light.
> 
> Anyone have any ideas as to what I can check next to try to correct 
> these latching high beams?  Do you think the new bulbs draw less current 
> so my original quick fix isn't drawing enough circuit to work any more?  
> The lows are bright enough to get me by at night in the short term and I 
> can flip the lights off and on quickly when I need to turn my high beams 
> off but I don't want to plan to drive it like this into the winter but 
> it's good enough to get me to and from the airport once a week until I 
> figure this out.
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Paul Dooley
> 95 S6 - 256,000 miles and counting
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