Headlight (Low and High) won't turn on

Hello fellow Silverwingers,

Long time lurker, first time poster! 2010 Silverwing over here.

I've recently had an issue with my headlight (both high and low beams) not turning on. Here's what I've tested so far:

1. New bulbs for both, nothing.
2. Taking a test light to the fuse box. All good.
3. Wiggling stuff around...a lot
4. Test light to the harness connecting all the front lights. The colors that matched the headlights (Grey, White and Blue) all did not have juice coming out of them.

So, I'm wondering if it's two things: 1. The Low Beam Relay, which is, I believe, right next to the Fan Motor Relay (Which, if I'm not mistaken, are these):



If so, would you just get a replacement relay like this? There is no specific low beam relay, correct? It's nothing "special"?

2. There is some other connection getting in the way between the fuse box and I'm not aware or...

3. There is some kind of frayed wire situation somewhere in the wiring along the way...which might involve some serious teardown.

At any rate, I should be out tomorrow seeing if jumping anything works. But I'm not sure if that causes long term damage or the like, or overtaxes the wires and makes them hotter than normal, since it's trying to open more current up?...I'm nowheres near an electrician so please, feel free to correct the heck out of me!

Like I said, I'll be around so I'm happy to take pictures.

And let me also add this...

5. I opened the dimmer switch to clean inside of it. Prior to the lights totally cutting out, sometimes at start, they would be off. When this happened, I found blowing the horn turned the light back on. So I do/did wonder if there was some break in a wire headed that way. Hmmm....

Hello Brian.

Open up that dimmer/horn switch housing again and spritz the contacts with electrical contact cleaner. Do the same on the right side switches —especially the push-to-start switch. The PTS switch also kills the power to the headlights when starting the bike. Dirty, corroded contacts there have also been known to cause the headlights not to come back ON after being released. So give all the contacts a good spritzing.

Please let us know how you get on with this issue. We all benefit from shared information.

Well, sadly, no luck on the low beam relay. I did a test light with the relay out of the socket and two of them lite up, two of them didn't, so I'm guessing that is good, since it would mean that two are live and two are ground. Also switched the relays around to no avail, troubleshooting if one was bad.

I actually ended up breaking the housing on one taking it out and got a domestic replacement. It was $16 at Advanced Auto. Here is a link to it. Even though it says it doesn't fit, it does...I guess I can't post the link since I'm new...so if you want to know, just message me.

Here is proof:



I did try to jump one of the blinker lights (with a 14 gage wire) and did get a temporary glimmer from the bulb but it faded and then both blinker bulbs wouldn't lite up until I turned the key on and off again.

I haven't yet cleaned off the kill switch and starter side of things. I'm actually curious if that would do anything, as according to the wiring diagram, the only thing they have in common with the headlight is the ground. My thought is that is simply terminates everything that way versus some kind of switch to turn off the headlight. Here is that section of the wiring diagram and does share a Gray ground:



I did my best to trace everything I could for the headlight and where it goes. Here is the wiring diagram and other than the dimmer switch, I'm just plain stuck on where else it could go. Like I said in a previous post, I did clean it. I ended up taking apart the small contact and giving it the wire brush, but I didn't test light it. It appears the wires are covered in some sort of epoxy to help with longevity. On top of which, when I closed it up, it doesn't shut properly...argh...

Here are my traces on a wiring diagram. I had to piece this together in paint because Acrobat is being a jerk. I'm happy to expand this further out:



It seems to go right to that lo beam relay and then to the dimmer, only making a detour to the dash light to tell you that the high beam is on.

Speaking of which, the high beam light on the dash is not coming on. I re-checked the dimmer switch and it's clean and has been taken to the wire brush. So, I'm wondering if it's the dimmer switch itself (although it looks perfectly fine) or it has something to do further with this mystery blue being disconnected somewhere.

At any rate, the mystery continues...I called a shop and left a message and we'll see if they'll take her in. So many places won't, even here near downtown Denver. I'm just afraid this might mean a major tear down and cutting into all this wiring wrap to find the bad lead...sigh.

Anyone know a good aftermarket headlight I could easily wire in in it's place? Honestly, and this is going to sound terrible, but to make it barely legal, I've just strapped a powerful headlamp on the front. It's just enough to see and be seen.

Okay, that's it for now...sun is going down. Tomorrow is another day.

I guess I could at least post the part number...Car Quest RAA1238. For the relay.

Oh my goodness. I also tried spraying both the dimmer switch and the starter switch with an electronics spray and the day after they came on for only a short time and now still off three days later.
Am I correct in believing if it was a relay that it either works or does not and there is no in-between.
I can understand if one of the switches is malfunctioning because there is a metallic contact there is more of a possibility of a on off problem. Fortunately, I have fog lights so i'm not completely in the dark.
I'm not wanting to remove the fairing unless I absolutely have to in order to replace the relay's if that apparently does not fix the problem.
the fuse is good.

Now 5 days later I took off both switches again and sprayed
a lot of WD-40 on both and still nothing.

johnd wrote:

Oh my goodness. I also tried spraying both the dimmer switch and the starter switch with an electronics spray and the day after they came on for only a short time and now still off three days later.
Am I correct in believing if it was a relay that it either works or does not and there is no in-between. (Snip)

You are correct, sir. There’d be no in-between.

A chinesium relay could possibly get water contamination and become erratic. But certainly not a sealed Honda relay.

Headlights.
I am again a very happy camper,  thanks to this wonderful website.  I purchased the starter switch from the dealership about $ 60.00 and went to work removing  the front fairing because it was the only way. As I started taking apart the switch itself I noticed a wire was disconnected.
Excellent. Then I knew I was on the right track. I ordered some led lights from Amazon $ 20.00 because they are reported to be a brighter and whiter light. Thay are a Hi/Low beam that put out 6500K white light. The information sais 180% Brighter and brodder than OEM light. I turned on the bike at night to see what thay looked loke and really like the upgrade.
Now that I have the fixit bug, I'm going to order more spray paint from Colorrite and  make it pretty.  It's an 08 with 50,000 miles on it so it in need of some TLC. TENDER LOVING CARE.
There is one difference in the new switch and that's when you turn the key off it does not turn the scooter off so it needs to be turned off at the kill switch.

Just tapped mine and restarted and lights flickered and came on… was the START BUTTON!!!!

I had the problem with both headlights not working - as I was leaving for work at 4am! Fiddled and restarted a couple of times and happily got it working to get me to work in the pitch dark! Was marshaling a road cycle race - starting at sparrows.
Got it to my Fixit guy on the way home and it was also the 'start' button on the RHS handlebar. However, my bike is super high mileage so the contacts for the light on/off, had just been worn down so badly they were no longer contacting.
Some soldering later, everything is working as normal again. Lucky for me - his daily job is fixing fiddly electronics in luxury vehicles, so nothing came apart in his hands..

Glad you got it sorted so easily. MY SW is old and although the starter switch seems OK, my light switch feels really nasty sometimes so I know where to look if I get problems with it.

It was at around 50,000 miles that both my starter switch and turn signal stopped working within three months of each other.

Registered only to say thank you: the headlights on my 2002 SW 600 wouldn't turn on, and after reading the recommendation here to generously lube the inside of right hand side switchgear (with contact spray) it started to work again! It seems the culprit really was that "cut off the headlight while the starter button is pressed" feature: even though the soldering looked solid, there must have been debris or thin layer of rust or something, which was washed away and now it works!

Thank you, without this thread, I would have never thought of that (I almost started to tear down the fairings and inspecting the wiring loom, something I really wasn't looking forward to)