[headwerkn]

Hi all,

Got a couple of electrical issues in my '93 Vitara JX LWB that have confounded me.

Earlier this week my interior heater fan suddenly stopped working; being the middle of winter here in Tassie it has been pretty left on at maximum or near-maximum to keep the inside of the windshield clear of condensation, as well as myself warm! It had been working perfectly fine at all speed settings since I got the car a little over a year ago, but I had noticed increasingly it was making a 'ticking' sound that corresponded with the actual fan speed. Sounded like maybe a worn bearing or something like that, nothing too major. Anyway, it was inoperable at any fan setting... the following day, it came alive again for the early morning run into work, though I didn't dare touch the fan switch for fear of annoying it! That afternoon, it was dead again and hasn't worked since.

Checked fuse - all good there.

Have checked power input at the fan (2 terminal connector easily visible in passenger side footwell) - reads no volts at OFF and 14.27V at any of the 4 speed settings with the car running and lights off. Voltage drops approx. 0.5V with lights on, and a bit more again with AC switched on.

The fan switch still appears to be controlling the AC - bang in the AC button, with the fan at OFF it doesn't go, set fan speed to anything else and it clicks in, both in terms of the light on the AC button and the compressor itself (can hear it click in, revs drop, etc.). So based on that, I'm assuming the switch itself is fine.

Given there's volts reaching the fan itself and it isn't going I'm at this stage assuming the fan motor is just plain dead and needs replacement - unless anyone knows of anything else it could be? I have the Gregorys manual and while one could go blind trying to decipher the barely legible wiring diagram it has, it only shows the fan switch, resistor assembly (which limits fan RPM when running on the slower speed settings, presumably) and the motor itself. Seems pretty basic.

Ok, other issue.... I've suddenly lost my hi-beam circuit! Worked fine yesterday morning for the commute to work. Went to flick it on tonight, low beam comes on fine, but lights go out when hi beam is selected at the stalk. Both left and right headlights are affected.

Checked fuses - nothing's blown.

Checked bulbs - all OK. I only replaced these about 3 weeks ago as one had blown, replaced them as a pair with fresh 100W bulbs.

Checked output at bulb sockets. Assuming the pinouts for H4 bulbs on the web are correct, lo-beam is showing system voltage (14.0V when engine running, 11.7V when not)... hi beam shows 0V. Ah ha! We're getting somewhere.

Now, I've got driving lights fitted... the wiring itself was done by a previous owner, so I'm not 100% sure of exactly what they've done, but it appears they've tapped the hi beam circuit for the relay input in the usual style so the driving lights only power when the vehicle's hi beams are on (or the headlights are off completely which is annoying, but makes sense so you can flash your hi beams with the lights otherwise off). Anyway, the driving lights still switch in and out with low-hi beam as they always did, switching off at lo beam, switching on with hi beam.

Finally, the 'lights on' alarm still works if the engine is off and a door is open.

With all that in mind, it seems like there might be something up with the hi beam relays, though it seems strange that both should decide to go poof at the same time. It's also strange that the driving lights are continuing to function as per before. Quite frankly I'm at a loss as to what's going on.

Any ideas anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated. At this time of year I'm driving to and from work in both the dark and the cold, typical Murphy's Law that these be the two things that decide to die on me.

Cheers, Ben

[Gwydion]

You could measure resistance of the fan motor, if it is open circuit, the motor is cactus... It sounds a little bit like a faulty neutral connection, maybe rust were the neutral of both goes to the frame.

But hard to diagnose from the distance.

Cheers

[Gwydion]

Sorry, I read again and you say you measured across the 2 terminals, that means it can't be the neutral for the fan, start with the resistance test...

[headwerkn]

I measured voltage across the 2-lead connector that plugs into the fan - that showed voltage.

Just now checked resistance across the motor terminals - showing ~1.1kohm. No idea what it would otherwise read if the fan was 100%, but that doesn't appear to indicate a fault.

I'll have to wait for the morning before unbolting the fan itself, is there anything inside the assembly that could be causing the issue... or is it basically just a simple motor that'll either work or not?

Cheers, Ben.

[Gwydion]

Resistance sounds a little bit too high, unfortunately I don't have the schematics to give you more ideas.

[Gwydion]

I just found a picture on the net with the electrics on it. If the motor is fine you get different voltages according to the setting of the controller switch on the two pole terminal.

If the circuit is open or very high resistance due to damaged motor the resistor voltage divider does not work and you get always the same reading.

If smoke comes out of your fan motor... Catch it... You have to put it back later or its not complete

[headwerkn]

Gwydion wrote:

If the circuit is open or very high resistance due to damaged motor the resistor voltage divider does not work and you get always the same reading.

That's what I figured.... sounds like I need a replacement motor. Oh well... at least it won't require taking apart the whole dash!

[royce]

id pull the motor out and make sure its not obstructed in the housing, give it a spin and some contact clean in the end with the electrics and see what happens.

Now your high beam, first up your spotlights are wired wrong, when they come on with the lights off like that they have tried to wire them like a positive switch car, not negative switch.
So disconnect them for now so we can remove them from the list of problem things

Now do you get high beam when you pull the stalk back to flash them? if you do the fault is in the dip switch somewhere, with 100w globes its likely melted the housing a little and the molten plastic has flowed over the contact, insulating it.

If you dont then we need to look a bit further, starting with unplugging both headlights, throwing the multimeter as far away and possible and getting a normal test lamp.

looking into the headlight plugs (side with wire) we want to make sure we have power on the left vertical terminal on both plugs, connect the test light earth clip to the body.
If not check the headlight fuses, you need to pull them out and look, dont trust them just showing power each side.
If so we then want to connect teh test light earth clip up to the power terminal we just tested, confirm, its connected by grounding the test light probe, should light up

now turn the lights on and put them on low beam and test the horizontal terminal in the headlight plugs, both should light up on low beam and go out on high, you can use the powered terminal on each plug if your test light lead isn't long enough.

now switch to high beam and test both the same, I am guessing here that neither side will light up. test with the switch pulled back to flash as well.

Note the colour of that high beam wire and head to under the steering column.

attach the earth clip of your test light to a constant power source, use the test light normally to find one, off the back of the key is a good place.

now find that high beam wire as close to teh dip switch as possible, switch to high beam and lights on of course and see if the test light lights up, if so keep probing this wire along the loom and especially both sides of every plug you come across till you find where it stops lighting up and then locate and repair the break - burnt connection.

if it doesnt the problem is in the switch, you can pull the covers off and have a look at how it works and usually find what isnt working and fix them up, or just replace it.

we can get to hooking the spot lights up correctly later

[shandy92]

With the fan, have you tried manually running it? Just a jumper wire from the battery and plug it into the fan connecter. If the fan works then its wiring to the fan or something else.

[headwerkn]

Hi Royce,

My apologies for taking so long to respond to your very detailed reply... we've had some rather craptacular weather down here in Tassie the past week, with the power out for a few days, and I currently have to work on my Zook outside, which isn't so great in 80kmh winds and falling trees. Long answer short, I've only just had a chance to finally look into things.

royce wrote:

id pull the motor out and make sure its not obstructed in the housing, give it a spin and some contact clean in the end with the electrics and see what happens.

Low and behold that's all it turned out to be.... not quite sure how exactly a few bits of bracken fern and a dead beetle can jam up a motor like that, but once removed it spun up instantly on a separate battery.... no problems when reinstalled. Will have to make a note of checking it every 6 months or so.

Well that's one down, one to go....

royce wrote:

Now your high beam, first up your spotlights are wired wrong, when they come on with the lights off like that they have tried to wire them like a positive switch car, not negative switch.

Yeah I always figured that wasn't quite right.... at some point I'll update the spots to something like Narva 35W HIDs and redo the wiring at the same time.

royce wrote:

Now do you get high beam when you pull the stalk back to flash them?

No, that doesn't work... and to be honest, I can never recall it actually ever working since I've had the vehicle (a bit over a year now). Always thought it was weird the headlamps didn't have that basic functionality... but then again it doesn't have a dimmer on the instrumentation lighting or intermittent wipers either, and figured it was just another place where Suzuki had been cheap....

royce wrote:

If you dont then we need to look a bit further, starting with unplugging both headlights, throwing the multimeter as far away and possible and getting a normal test lamp.

My rather expensive Brymen wasn't thrown but I did go buy a 12VDC test light and used that instead....

royce wrote:

looking into the headlight plugs (side with wire) we want to make sure we have power on the left vertical terminal on both plugs, connect the test light earth clip to the body.

With the car running I'm showing power to all three terminals on both sides (test lamp clip on -ve battery terminal.

royce wrote:

If not check the headlight fuses, you need to pull them out and look, dont trust them just showing power each side.

Fuses are definitely OK - have visually- and continuity-checked them.

royce wrote:

now turn the lights on and put them on low beam and test the horizontal terminal in the headlight plugs, both should light up on low beam and go out on high, you can use the powered terminal on each plug if your test light lead isn't long enough.

now switch to high beam and test both the same, I am guessing here that neither side will light up. test with the switch pulled back to flash as well.

This is basically what happened.... lights on low beam, doesn't on hi. Pulling back the headlamp stalk of course doesn't show any difference/switching.

Unfortunately this is as far as I got before it started pissing with rain again... will be able to stay back at work tomorrow and check out the wiring in the steering column, but it does sound like a break or burn out in the wiring somewhere, or perhaps a dodgy relay.

Will report back shortly...