Headlights stopped working

[Kirstin]

Help!

My 197s headlights have been playing up for a few days.

First my my passenger side one was switching itself on, long after the car had been locked and all lights switched off and key no where near car.

I looked out out the window at around 3am and the headlight was on, went and checked the stock was off and it was, gave it a wiggle and it went off for a while but came back on.

Now since then then my drivers side headlight wasn't coming on the following day (new bulbs 3 weeks ago) and today when I tried to turn my lights on only my side lights will come on, both headlights have stopped working.

Has anyone else had this problem?

If if so what was the solution? I need my car to get to work so need to get to the bottom of this ASAP.

 

[Jimmy]

One of the first things to check with any dodgy electrical-type problems is whether the drain holes are blocked under the scuttle panel at the bottom of the windscreen. Any water building up is known to cause trouble with the electrics.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Mattb_197]

+1 on the scuttle drains, I checked mine when I bought the car. IIRC the drivers side one is quite a bit smaller than the passenger side one and was blocked up on mine. Fairly easy job to do, just have to take the wipers and scuttle off to get to them. I used some foam type cleaner and a few zip ties to shove down and clear the blockage.

I notice you say you changed the bulbs 3 weeks ago, was it doing this before you'd changed them?

All you can do really is check all the wiring is good, check the earths (not sure where they are on the Clio) and maybe have a code reader plugged in to see if it flags anything up. I know I've a dodgy wiper stalk on mine that showed up on a code reader, which makes sense as sometimes I can't scroll through the trip computer functions and every now and then the wipers will have a funny do lol.

 

[john_walker74]

Also check the fuse box and relays
A friend had a similar problem and the fuse box had got a little warm...

 

[Kirstin]

Got to the root of the problem... I think.
After checking the book it said that the max wattage bulbs you can use is 55W, I had 90W bulbs in (ones which stayed on by themselves).
We changed these for 55W bulbs and all was fine... so far.
On the higher wattage bulbs, the glass had expanded and bubbled so I think it was because they were too strong.
Will see soon if they start it again.

 

[Jimmy]

Good to hear you got to the cause of the problem. Thanks for updating.