QuestionHi Roland, This is my third LeBaron and your help with the previous two has been immense!
I'm having electrical troubles with my 1992 GTC convertible 3.0l.
The main electrical problem: The rear lights go out, the dash illumination lights go out, and the marker lights on the corners go out when highbeam is engaged.
I still will have brake lights on high or low beam. And the turn signals will work on high or low.
I have noticed that my park lights can't be engaged by themselves. The parklight switch doesn't feel like it "clicks" on and off like the lights on and off switch does.I hope it's not the switch as LeBarons are getting hard to come by in the wrecking yards in these parts.
As well...I have intermittent (the best kind!!) problems with my Right signal. Sometimes, the right signal dash indicator will glow very dimly, and the signal itself will operate very fast...like with a burnt-out bulb. The Right (passenger) rear indicator will operate very fast when this condition happens, but the Right (passenger) front won't.
The condition seems to fix itself. I can't say for sure. It seems when the car heats up it fixes, but not always. I realize this could point to contact problems because of the on/off nature which resolves with a hotter interior/expansion...but I don't know where to start.
I am the second owner. The original owner also had someone "fix" the factory alarm. I believe it was done by grounding a wire for the alarm in the door. I still have the factory alarm. It just causes the four marker lights to blink and something is clicking rhythmically like a relay or something.
I mention all of these things in case they are relevant to the main question: what is going on with the Right (passenger) rear lights going out and the dash illumination going out when highbeams are engaged?
Any help offered would be most appreciated. I would LOVE a copy of the RELAY SCHEMATIC if possible. I will am trying to remember how to do that with you. I believe you asked for a self-addressed envelope with stamps, and a way to cover printing costs, but I can't remember the address to send it or what to send. If you can provide this infor I'd appreciate it, as I have found with LeBarons I am ALWAYS into that damn hard-to-get-at relay box at some point!!
I finally have a great LeBaron worth keeping. To that end, I've dumped over $2800 into it already, on top of the $3600 the previous owner dropped. The engine doesn't leak oil...yet. Amazing. Most everything is new or replaced. I am getting close to having most every major component done. BUT I have to sort out this electrical problem before I continue with the restoration.
Thanks in advance Roland for any help,
Your past help has been saved me lots of money and time,
I look forward to hearing from you,
Sincerely,
Rick Coneybeer
AnswerHi Rick,
The lighting system is quite complex on the '92. My first thought is that the main headlamp switch is the locus of the problem. Do you have any of the wiring diagrams? If not, then probably it would be good for you to have them. The best would be to have the '92 wiring diagram manual so you would have a full set for the vehicle. Keep an eye open for that to come up on eBay.
I can copy pages from that manual which apply to these problems and of course I can try to pinpoint a specific cause or causes.
A couple of questions: Do you have the lamp outage feature that show you when a bulb burns out?
When you say the rear lights go out, exactly which one don't work when you go to the high beams?
There are relays involved in these circuits and so the headlamp switch instead of powering on the bulbs does so by grounding the actuating coil of a relay for the bulb(s) in question. Turning something off falsely thus instead may involve shorting voltage to the actuating coil as opposed to grounding the coil or interfering with the grounding which is what many sections of the headlamp switch do when engaged.
The left switch pod has 13 wires: The high beam activation wire is red/yellow and that wire is on pin 3 of the plug. When you select high beam that wire is grounded by the switch which activates the high beam relay activation coil. There is no obvious reason why that would unground the wire for the parking/cornering lamps relay primary coil which is on pin 5 of the pod switch and is pink/dark blue nor why selecting the bright would modify the voltage on pins 8 (yellow/black) and 9 (orange/black) which are the wires that send info about dash illumination to the body computer which then changes those dash lighting levels. I would suggest that you observe all the above pins and see if selecting the bright option does indeed modify the voltage levels on those other wires and if so why that is has to be something inside that pod which is awry. Also, try using the momentary high beam (optical horn) switch when you have the low beam selected and see if that too causes the same 'outing' of the running/cornering lights.
I will copy pages from my '92 manual and postal mail them to you. Just tell me your postal address. It costs me 10 cents a side plus the postage, which you can reimburse me for after you receive the pages. I will let you know about how many pages would be involved before doing any copying, but with all the interconnecting pages I believe you will be better served to buy a used manual off of eBay.
So let me know answers to the above and I'll work on it some more.
PS Please read the PS below.
Thanks,
Roland
