Headlights Flipping OuT. Help!

Driving home in teh rain today in my 1990 Miata I notice thatteh
heradligths are flipping up and down all by themselves. They keep
doing that even if i shut off the ignition. I had to disconnect the
battery to get it to stop. What gives? The lights themselves work
normally. It's just that the flippers keep bringing them up and down
over and over no matter what I try to do to stop it. Did the rain
cause the motor to short and flip out on me?

"mdginzo" > wrote in message
...
> Driving home in teh rain today in my 1990 Miata I notice thatteh
> heradligths are flipping up and down all by themselves. They keep
> doing that even if i shut off the ignition. I had to disconnect the
> battery to get it to stop. What gives? The lights themselves work
> normally. It's just that the flippers keep bringing them up and
> down
> over and over no matter what I try to do to stop it. Did the rain
> cause the motor to short and flip out on me?

Probably. Or you've got a bad ground. Or, the connector between the
wiring harness and the headlight motor is bad. That's what caused the
same problem on my '90.

And you could have pulled the fuse rather than disconnect the
battery - it's the big green (IIRC) 30 amp in the fuse box in the
engine compartment.

Iva & Vixen
2004 Classic Red
Nor more winkin' Miata

mdginzo > wrote:

> Driving home in teh rain today in my 1990 Miata I notice thatteh
> heradligths are flipping up and down all by themselves. They keep
> doing that even if i shut off the ignition. I had to disconnect
> the battery to get it to stop. What gives? The lights themselves
> work normally. It's just that the flippers keep bringing them up
> and down over and over no matter what I try to do to stop it. Did
> the rain cause the motor to short and flip out on me?

Could be, one possible suspect is the dashboard switch, if it happens
again you might try stopping, turn off the headlights and then raise
and lower them several times using the dashboard pushbutton, that
*might* clean the contacts enough (if the switch is the problem) to get
things working again.

I had a problem with the headlights not raising as I turned them on, it
was VERY intermittent but replacing the switch fixed it.


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The technical commission of the Mazda MX-5 Club of the Netherlands has done
intensive investigation to this matter and we've found out that most of the
times the culprit is the grease that, after years of use, start running
insite the dashboard-switches behind the steering wheel. Ever since we've
solved many jumping headlights.

If only one headlight is jumping: You'll have to remove the steering wheel
and switch-package behind the wheel, open the switches and clean the
contacts thoroughly. After that re-apply a *small* amount of grease at the
joints and reinstall the lot. I'm quite sure your problems will be solved.

If always both headlights are jumping: check the headlight-motor relay for
continuity. Just one relay powers both motors so this is the first station.
Is the relay is OK check the switches as above.

Good luck!

Jeroen Feelders
Technical Commissioner
Mazda MX-5 Club of the Netherlands
http://www.mx5club.nl / http://miata.feelders.com

---

"mdginzo" > schreef in bericht
...
> Driving home in teh rain today in my 1990 Miata I notice thatteh
> heradligths are flipping up and down all by themselves. They keep
> doing that even if i shut off the ignition. I had to disconnect the
> battery to get it to stop. What gives? The lights themselves work
> normally. It's just that the flippers keep bringing them up and down
> over and over no matter what I try to do to stop it. Did the rain
> cause the motor to short and flip out on me?

On May 19, 2:06*pm, mdginzo > wrote:
> Driving home in teh rain today in my 1990 Miata I notice thatteh
> heradligths are flipping up and down all by themselves. *They keep
> doing that even if i shut off the ignition. *I had to disconnect the
> battery to get it to stop. *What gives? *The lights themselves work
> normally. *It's just that the *flippers keep bringing them up and down
> over and over no matter what I try to do to stop it. *Did the rain
> cause the motor to short and flip out on me?

Thanks for your responses. Once the day and the car dried out the
problem was fixed.