Headlights..!!

[Rash]

Started up and drove my NSX for the first time in about 2/3 weeks.. Anyway had the headlights on and everything was fine.. Several minutes later parked the car up and the drivers side went down but the passenger side stayed up..!! hmm i thought.. had a quick look (dont know what i was supposed to be looking for but just tapped the light a few times :) )

Anyway no joy - so as it looked a bit daft with one up one down I decided to just play with the switch a little longer and turning if on/off/on/off and now BOTH healights are up and wont go down when the car is switched off...!!

Any ideas peeps - all help gratefully appreciated..

Rash
p.s. was great fun driving it in the snow :)

[simonprelude]

'Possibly' you have some grit stuck in one of them or maybe iced up.

I'd look at washing the front end with warm water before panicking too much at the moment.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Rash.

There are several electrical components as well as mechanical linkage involved for retractable headlight system. I hope your linkage is not frozen up or got stuck as I heard similar issues caused by the rust/debris on the linkage especially on the original/earlier model.

First thing is to check 2 fuses inside the Main Relay Box.
It is located inside the front compartment under the bonnet above the Front Left tyre house. It's like the shape of pentagon.
There, you will see 2 of 15A fuse labeled as R. Headlight Retract motor and L. Headlight Retract motor. Are they OK?

There are 3 switches that can trigger the hedlight to go up.

The first one is quite obvious. The lighting switch. You mentioned that everything was working fine and then suddenly, one side didn't go down and after some further procedures, now both side doesn't go down.
I'm presuming that even at this stage, you can turn on and off the headlight using this lighting sw. Therefore, it is very unlikely that this switch is faulty.

The 2nd one is the Headlight Retractable sw. It is located right side of the dash just below the instrument meters and next to the ilumination brightness control knob. Is this pressed accidnetaly?

The 3rd one is the 'Passing' mode by pulling the indicator (turn signal) lever towards you.

As it looks more like fuse or relay related, it is very unlikely but does it make any differences when you operate any of the above 3 switches? (I already know that the lighting swith won't make any differences but just wanted to try again).

There are 4 relays, motors and control unit involved as well but I'll touch on these once I have more information from you.
We can test and check each components (relay, motor, etc) separately but that involves disassemblying some of the parts so let's try the easy bits first.

Regards,
Kaz

[Rash]

Hi,
firstly sorry for the late reply.. had a LOT of things going on.. Anyway went out to the car and checked the fuses for the headlights and they are all fine..

What next...??

Many Thanks in advance

Rash.

[amo]

mate theres a push in swtich to get the lights to go up and down withour being on rightside of steering wheel tap that a few times might work wot i did was take it out a few screws in the suround and desolder an then resolder it
ant probs 07889451905
also there is a turn screw to put the lights up or down just under the headlight
thx amo

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi,
firstly sorry for the late reply.. had a LOT of things going on.. Anyway went out to the car and checked the fuses for the headlights and they are all fine..

What next...??

Many Thanks in advance

Rash.
Hi, Rash.

If I experience the same issue as yours, I’ll carry out the following;

1. Check the Retract SW and make sure it is not pressed accidently.
2. Remove the two fuses described in my last post and check them.
3. While the fuses are removed, I’ll manually raise/retract the headlight unit by rotating the motor knob clockwise. This is to check the linkage.
4. I’ll check the four relays involved based on the workshop manual.
5. There were several reports on the failure of Retractable Headlight Control Unit. I’ll borrow the unit from another NSX and try it.
6. It is very unlikely to fail but I’ll check the retract motor by applying the voltage directly at the connector behind the motor unit.

Based on your comment, it is very unlikely that components for both Right and Left side to fail at the same time so I believe it is likely to be related to the retract sw or the control unit.

Hope this will provide you with some idea...

Regards,
Kaz