L300 headlight issue

[ateam]

We are fairly new owners of a l300 exceed (love it to bits)

We have been doing a roadtrip through Canada and the US for the past 6 weeks and have just encountered a problem with our lights.

We were driving into Kings Canyon in Cali yesterday which has some pretty demanding hill climbs (deli was running hot).

When we got to our campsite last night I dimmed the lights to park lights only... so we wouldn't blind everyone.

When I turned off the engine the park lights would then not turn off - we were getting the warning sound that the lights were on also.

We turned the engine back on to investigate and discovered the following....
- Full headlights would not turn on
- Highbeams only worked if you pulled the stalk towards you (temporarily engaging them)
-Fog lights were OK

I had a diagram translating the fuse box under the steering wheel so we had a poke around there but fuses all OK. Also knew there were some fuses behind the glove box so we took that off in despertion but nothing of note.

Ended up disconnecting the battery overnight so it wouldn't drain.

Sadly upon reconnecting this morning the park lights were still on. Thinking the stalk may have been stuck we sprayed a little CRC in the twister end and miraculously were able to turn park lights off......however now none of our lights are working !!!!

We are reluctant to take it to an auto electrician in Cali as they probably won't be familiar with set-up so any help would be much appreciated.

A few other things that may or may not be related....

1. Aircon stopping cooling a few days ago
2.Earlier on the day of problem we purchased a cigarette to AC power adapter
3. Car was running hot (midway on guage) for 1 hr ish before getting to camp.

Many thanks,
Andrew and Anna

[lrp374]

It sounds like a problem with the light switch which is not unusual. A couple of easy questions to confirm:

1. Do your signal lights still work properly?

2. Do you have factory fog lights?

3. Do or did you have daylight running lights?

[Lapprentis]

If you have combination switch problem: that may help:

http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=11284

Keep in touch when fixed.

Lapprentis

[ateam]

Hey guys, thanks so much for the quick replies.

@lrp374 -
1. Signals still working
2. We think fog lights are aftermarket, PIAA branded with a remote button
3. We don't have permanently running daytime lights, but we do normally have the option for park (first setting on rotater), normal beam (second setting on rotater) then high beam which is temporarily activated by pulling forward stalk (this is still working) or permanently activated by pushing forward stick (not working).

@Lapprentis...think that could be our issue though we didn't get the smell ? we actually pulled apart the steering column last night and saw a few of the components mentioned in the thread...we got a little overwhelmed so we hurriedly put it back together but with those photos and instructions we will have more of a play today.

Thanks again, we will keep you posted !!!!

[Lapprentis]

If it turn out to be your problem (Combination Switch) you may found these available on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mitsubishi-Deli ... e5&vxp=mtr) or maybe directly from some garage in BC. Find their phone # and ask for urgent shipping if your are on the road and want it fast.
Good Luck
Lapprentis

[ateam]

Hey guys....have some really good news !!!!

Took the steering column apart following the thread Lapprentis linked us to and found our problem....shifting carriage was snapped (see photo) and also the little plastic shifter beam that is connected to the stalk was melted and was no longer long enough to actually move the carriage between settings when the rotator is turned (see photo).

...hope this is making sense.

After some fiddling around with prototypes, we decided our best bet would be to try and graft some Jb Weld PlasticWeld epoxy putty onto the end of the plastic shifter to increase it's length. We also used the putty to repair the shifting carriage !!

All working good as gold now....not sure what the durability of the repair will be...hopefully long enough to at least get us to a repair shop back in BC. :)

Thanks a lot for your help, we would have been completely lost trying to tackle this on our own. Sending virtual beers your way !!!

Anna and Andrew

[FalcoColumbarius]

I am so glad to hear that!

When this first happened to me, I opened it up, saw all the different pretty coloured wires and nearly had an accident in my britches. I still keep a couple of combo switch carcasses in case I need to cannibalise for parts. It's a bit like the male brain ~ all in compartments, eh?

If you ever wind up in the Lower Mainland drop me a line if you fancy chewing the fat.

Falco.

[ateam]

Hi all,

Some disappointing news...our joy at fixing our lights was short lived and it seems the issue probably lay in the second-rate electrical component cleaner we used (the only one we could find at the time).

Luckily, she did get us back to Fernie in one piece but since then our lights have continued to arc and short out and we have been experiencing a combination of issues (including our battery draining even though we have taken out the fuses to force off the lights...could be related to short distance driving around town since being home?!)

Now that we are back at base, we are looking at a more permanent solution.

As you all know, combo switches go for around $500 new which is not an option for us at the moment, and are seemingly impossible to get hold of second hand, so we are hoping to track down the Deoxit D and Deoxit Gold formula that FalcoColumbarius used successfully in his original post - any ideas on where we can source this from ? Google tells me it's not readily available in Canadian stores ?

Thanks,
A - Team

[Growlerbearnz]

Contact cleaner is great for things you don't want to disassemble, but since you've got the switch that far apart you can clean up the contacts using a bit of fine sandpaper or a smooth nail file.

If I were in your situation I'd disconnect the four wires which go to the rotating part of the switch (leaving the indicator and high/low beam ones operational), re-route those wires out the bottom of the steering column shroud, and then turn on the lights by twisting those wires together when needed. My wiring diagram is a bit rough, but it looks like Blue and Red/blue connect together for park lights, and then Red/green stripe and Green/Red stripe go together for headlamps- but you should be able to figure out how it works by looking at the disassembled switch and replicating the connections it would have made if it was working.

[Lapprentis]

ateam, I did bought some after reading a post here (www.rpelectronics.com) You can have Deoxit product on Ebay or check for their Canadian distributors

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.15/catego ... SS.5933/.f

I plan to Deoxit Combo Switch and ECU Motherboard next winter in order to prevent any problems with those components

Keep in touch with your progressing work :)

Lapprentis