High beam flicking off and on again.

[brickpaver]

Awhile back, (6 months ago) I posted about the high beam in my 2003 Avalon going off and back on again, which I later thought that I had fixed by replacing the relay.  I haven’t needed to use high beam too often since then and each time has been okay,..even after driving for awhile.

  Last night however, out of the blue, it started doing it again as soon as I hit high beam, only a couple of minutes after taking the car out, the high beam began the off and on again, repeatedly until I clicked back ti low beam and stayed there. Several times this happened.

It is almost certainly a ‘high beam only’ wiring or connection fault somewhere and nowhere else because none of the other electrics in the car are ever affected, including parkers and low beam.. I was certain that it was the headlight relay as it had all the signs of an overloaded relay which had seemed fine for the past few weeks,....until now.

All obvious connections....,.battery, alternator, headlights, etc have been checked and secure and every other electrical component working correctly as they should,....it’s just these random times only when I hit high beam that it happens.  Common logic to me says that if it WAS a general wiring connection fault, then other electric components would be affected as well but they’re not.  My gut feeling also is that it isn’t the column cluster either.

 To me it STILL has ALL the earmarks of being the headlight relay at fault so unless Ive inadvertently replaced the wrong relay,,..??..but I checked that first too, by noting the relay box diagrams and removing and replacing the relay to double check that I had the correct one.

It sounds like a simple fix which I still just can’t find ....yet,......but I still don’t feel like paying an auto electrician $125 an hour minimum fee either for him to just go fishing for something that seems so simple.

  This is made a bit harder by the fact that the high beam will spasmodically stay on indefinitely, while at other times it will do the flick off and on and off and on again right from the start...... None of the wiring in the car has ever been touched anyway so it's not as if any connections have been disturbed by other work being done.

If only the high beam would STAY off when it goes off,... then it would no doubt be easier to trace a single fault,... but it won’t do that, it comes back on again.

   So damn frustrating............I hope someone can add a theory or two.

   Cheers,....Lance.

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by brickpaver

[campbeam]

On 5/16/2019 at 10:44 AM, brickpaver said:

.I hope someone can add a theory or two.

I have just replaced the alternator in my Toyota Aurion. In hindsight, I should have checked the alternator output with a multimeter especially when I was thinking that the headlights were not as bright as before. Maybe your alternator has an intermittent fault to not be working the best when under load.

[brickpaver]

Thanks Ashley.

I did actually have a brand new alternator fitted almost a year ago and everything has still gone on working fine ever since then so I can rule that out as causing any conflict.

 The reality to me though is that because this problem,..intermittent as it is,...does not even remotely affect any other light or the other electrics in the entire car,..ONLY the high beam.  whereas,..the interior lights (five of them),..the dash lights and parking lights, the radio, the GPS, anything plugged in to the lighter socket, the glove box light, door open lights at the bottom of the four doors,....ALL remain on and completely unaffected at the same time as tge high beam is doing its on /off flicker thing.

As I said, it has ALL the earmarks of being a faulty or overloaded relay and yet, even though I have replaced that relay, the problem remains.

  Frustration still reigns within. 😟