[brando93]

I was driving home in the rain the other night with the high beams on when i got a strong smell of burning electrics, cables i presume but havnt discovered the problem yet. Soon after, high beams went off including normal headlights. I pulled over and couldnt see anything so flicked back to normal beams, lights came on and i drove the short distance home.
So now i have normal headlights but not high beams, when i switch to high beams the lights go off. The high beam indicator light on the dash doesnt turn anymore either.
Can't see any sign of damaged cable at the moment short of pulling the dash out. Had anybody here experienced this before or know what a likely cause would be.
Im leaning towards a short circuit that has cooked the wiring but cant see why the lows would work still. Do the vits have two seperate cables to the headlights? Could it be the combo switch unit?
Im leaning towards it being behind the fire wall inside the car somewhere rather than the engine bay as i couldnt smell any smoke when i popped the bonnet but open to input.

[royce]

when you pull the dip switch back to pass do they come on?

[brando93]

When i pull the dip switch the normal beam lights stay on and nothing at all happens. Push forward and lighs go off completely. Will also add that there are no spotties or anything wired in that would cause and excessive load that i know of.

[royce]

pull the bottom dash panel and column shroud off and start looking for burnt wires, probably around a plug

it could be the switch but its next to impossible to explain how to test it all over the internet

Note that just replacing the switch is a waste of time unless youve tested it to be the problem

[brando93]

Yeah will have a look, will test the switch if needs be.

[Ausuki]

Any when you do find it wire in some relays, what wattage high beams were you running?

[Built4thrashing]

It could be that the high beam relay has fused. Fint that and replace it and see it it fixes the problem.

If your running higher than standard globes you may have overloaded the wiring harness. This is not good as it can set fire to the loom and cause majour damage.

[Built4thrashing]

Oh and check your fuses.

[royce]

No Vitara has a high beam relay

[brando93]

high beams randomly started working again, didnt leave them on for too long as i didnt want to cause a bigger problem but still can't find and burnt cables without removing dash. i removed the steering column cover and had a good look underneath as well.

[brando93]

fuses are good, standard wattage high beams.

[Ausuki]

If the fuses are good and globes are good then it trace backwards from the fuse box