260Z combo switch craziness

[jcmclaughlin81]

My car just started something weird. My headlights won't work unless the wipers are switched on. The parking light setting on the switch will work. I took the switch apart and gave it a cleaning but nothing changed. Has anyone else experienced this?

[SteveJ]

Will the headlights turn on with the ignition in OFF? If so, it's a mechanical issue with the switch.

[jcmclaughlin81]

If the ignition is off and I put the headlight switch to on the lights won't turn on, but if I turn the wipers on with headlight switch still on they will work even with the key in the off position. 

[SteveJ]

So it is an electrical issue. Supply some more history.

• How long have you owned the car?
• How often do you drive it?
• Has the car even been flooded?
• Did you (or someone else) do any work on the car between the time the headlights worked properly and they didn't?
• Can you take the cover off of the steering column and provide some decent quality photos of the wiring harness coming up to the switches?

[jcmclaughlin81]

I bought the shell in july of 2018 and rb swapped it. I just recently got it on the road and have only drove it at night once or twice. I did the relay mod on the headlights during the swap and they were working fine. A few days ago I was checking everything over because there is a local car show weekend coming up. That's when I noticed this problem manifested. I pulled my turn signal switch to clean it out because about half the time they weren't working. I got those fixed and put it back on the car and then the headlights weren't working. I pulled the headlight switch before I left the house. I'll get some pics of it with I get home. 

[SteveJ]

2 hours ago, jcmclaughlin81 said:

I bought the shell in july of 2018 and rb swapped it. I just recently got it on the road and have only drove it at night once or twice. I did the relay mod on the headlights during the swap and they were working fine. A few days ago I was checking everything over because there is a local car show weekend coming up. That's when I noticed this problem manifested. I pulled my turn signal switch to clean it out because about half the time they weren't working. I got those fixed and put it back on the car and then the headlights weren't working. I pulled the headlight switch before I left the house. I'll get some pics of it with I get home. 

By "shell" did it still have a factory wiring harness?

What was the source for the relay mod swap?

Do your wipers come on with the wiper switch?

Symptoms that manifested from removing and re-installing the turn signal switch could indicate grounding issues. In general it sounds as though you may have multiple wiring issues.

The nice thing is that the factory service manual has breakouts for individual circuits in the BE section that aid in diagnosing issues. You can go to the Downloads in Resources to download a copy of the FSM.