headlight relay - 240

I have recently been driving more at night than I have in quite some
time. While I do use my headlights in daylight quite often, this
problem would not have shown in daytime. Over the last few night
drives, after the headlights have been on for about 25 minutes, they
begin to flicker. Not fully off and on, but enough to be easily
visible. I tried turning the headlight switch off and on a few times,
and flashing the high beams, but the problem is so intermittent and
happens so seldom that it is difficult to tell the source of the
problem using that method.

I finally worked on the problem this morning (hard to remember to do
it- it's too dark and late to work on at night when I get home, and I
don't see tem flicker during the day and so I forget). I first
thought, "maybe a dirty fuse," but there are no fuses for the
headlights. Next logical step 9and the easiest) was the headlight
relay. Easily found without a shop manual by flashing the high beams
on and off a few times. It is located right next to, and behind the
battery on the inside of the fender well. I removed it and pried the
case off by bending the little tabs back, and found that the contacts
were arced more than I would like and had a bit of carbon on them.
After cleaning the contacts up I also cleaned the spade connectors on
the base of the relay and applied a bit of silicone dielectric grease.
haven't driven it for any length of time yet, but from the looks of
things, that was the solution.

On a side note, the workings inside the relay are a thing to behold!
__ __
Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
\__/olvos
'90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
"Shelby" & "Kate"

Randy G. wrote:
> I have recently been driving more at night than I have in quite some
> time. While I do use my headlights in daylight quite often, this
> problem would not have shown in daytime. Over the last few night
> drives, after the headlights have been on for about 25 minutes, they
> begin to flicker. Not fully off and on, but enough to be easily
> visible. I tried turning the headlight switch off and on a few times,
> and flashing the high beams, but the problem is so intermittent and
> happens so seldom that it is difficult to tell the source of the
> problem using that method.
>
> I finally worked on the problem this morning (hard to remember to do
> it- it's too dark and late to work on at night when I get home, and I
> don't see tem flicker during the day and so I forget). I first
> thought, "maybe a dirty fuse," but there are no fuses for the
> headlights. Next logical step 9and the easiest) was the headlight
> relay. Easily found without a shop manual by flashing the high beams
> on and off a few times. It is located right next to, and behind the
> battery on the inside of the fender well. I removed it and pried the
> case off by bending the little tabs back, and found that the contacts
> were arced more than I would like and had a bit of carbon on them.
> After cleaning the contacts up I also cleaned the spade connectors on
> the base of the relay and applied a bit of silicone dielectric grease.
> haven't driven it for any length of time yet, but from the looks of
> things, that was the solution.
>
> On a side note, the workings inside the relay are a thing to behold!
> __ __
> Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
> \__/olvos
> '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
> "Shelby" & "Kate"


That's the high/low selection relay, there's another headlight relay
behind the dash, location depends on the year, but I've replaced two
that had oxidized and melted down the connector, had to replace the
connector as well. They're the small cube shaped 30A Bosch relays with
the standard 5 pin plug. Next time I find one burned up like that I'll
replace it with two in parallel.