Please Help on UrQ euro headlight wierdness

[Michael Williams <mike@urquattro.com>]

hey all, i just purchased a set of used Cibie flat style UrQ H4/H1 euro 
headlights and im having some very strange and perplexing problems with 
them.  Firstly, lst night when i was at 2 bennett and installed them, the 
headlight switch (the dimmer switch, not the headlight switch itself) 
promptly committed suicide.  Seeing that i didnt have an extra, nor did 
Andrew Bennett, Tim Valencia and i proceded to dismantle the combo switch 
that i had.  We found that the little plastic rocker switch had melted 
completely and taken one of the copper contacts, with surrounding plastic 
with it.  we took the matching part out of a newer style combo switch, 
filled the little melted plastic with some epoxy and then reassembled 
that switch.  Well, after all was said and done, and since i didnt have 
one of the 2B wiring harnesses available, tim and i decided to leave the 
H1 bulbs unplugged as they would possibly overload the circuit.  We also 
noticed, that while they were plugged in, they would glow faintly (the 
H1's) when the low beams were selected.  That is why we left them 
unplugged (this problem was noted before the switch melted as well...). 

I was in for a big surprise when i drove from davis to dixon to drop tim 
off, there was almost NO light coming from the headlights.  I couldnt 
drive more than 50mph without becoming frightened. Strangely, when i 
would turn on the high beams, all seemed ok....

So when we got back to tim's shop, we were messing around and i noticed 
that when tim plugged the H1's in while the low beams were on, everything 
got MUCH brighter... They still didnt seem quite full strength, but they 
were MUCH better than before.  I decided to risk blowing the circuit 
again and drove home like this, with the H1's plugged in, glowing just 
faintly, and the H4's lighting up the road quite well.  We measured a 
voltage at the H1's with just the low beam circuit selected at 2.6 
volts...so there was some sort of strange leakage, which seemed to be a 
ground problem more than anything else.

So tonight, i went around to auto parts stores and picked up some relays 
and a bunch of wire (10 guage for the main power and 12 guage for the 
rest of the stuff...that seemed like plenty).  So i went home, hooked up 
the power directly from the alternator output, measured 14.5 volts with 
the car on at the light bulb and plugged in the low beam circuit that i 
had just built, using the passenger side low beam wire as the switch for 
the relay.  I had only built the low beams at this time and wsa planning 
on running just them for now while i tried to scrounge up a couple more 
relays...  Well, i ended up having the same problem as the night before, 
the headlights were VERY dim.  So i tried hooking back up the stock 
wiring, connecting everything, and it was brighter.  Then i hooked up the 
new stuff, and hooked up the stock high beam connectors to both the H4 
and H1 bulbs and it was bright again.  Hmm...well, it doesnt matter which 
ground is connected to the H1 (and btw, only the driver's side seems to 
affect the brightness of the rest of the bulbs...) as i used the stock 
one and then one that i made myself, and the same thing happened.  if the 
H1 was unplugged, the H4's were dim, and if the H1 was plugged in, using 
either ground, the H4's got brighter...

Then i went to turn on the high beams...well, the driver's side H1 lit 
up, both H4's were lit, but quite dim, and the passenger side H1 was not 
lit at all.   I measured i think 3.6 volts at the passenger side H4 and 
0.0 volts on the passenger side H1...  So somewhere, the passenger wiring 
for the highs is messed up, although, the driver's H4 was dim as well, 
but not quite so.....

So right now, to preserve my sanity, i left it hooked up with the relayed 
H4's and stock wiring for the highs and H1's.  The H1's (both of them 
strangely enough) glow faintly on low beams...

So what do i do?????  I am out of ideas on what to make of this 
situation.  The only thing i can think of is to build the high beam 
circuit and hope that it is remedied.  

Also, the side marker lights no longer work...

ARGH!!!!  Anyone have any ideas?

later...

Michael Sheridan Williams
San Francisco, CA
ICQ# 11740998
1983 UrQuattro, MC--1.8 BAR, borla, 2B Coilover, 16x7.5 OZ Mito's w/ Yoko 
A520's, K&N
1985 4000S Quattro, Koni Yellows/Coilover (2B), strut brace, Sport 8000 
Tires, K&N
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