Well about a week ago I lost my running lights functionality all together. I got to the issue last night and tore apart the cluster bezel and tested out the harness and switch.


The problem: When I roll the headlight switch to illuminate the dash and turn on the running lights ONLY my dash turns on, front/rear running lights are dead as well as the tail lamps. I checked out the harness and it does have some yellowing on the connector indicating a lot of extra juice has been pouring through it lately and something must have blown in the headlight switch.


Solutions tried so far: The FC this is happening to is an 88 GXL I have what I am 85% sure to be an 87 Sport headlight switch that I tried to swap in. When I did that the switch was able to run my running lamps and dash but the headlamps do not function now so I guess this switch went bad sometime when it was sitting in my boxes for the past year.



I jumper'd the appropriate pins to check the harness again and the running lamps run quite fine with just a wire and do not fail at least within a minute or two. With the switch I had in there they would light up a max of 2-3 seconds.



What I want to do while I get a replacement or I get my own switch rebuilt is Wiring a set of toggle switches for all the lights by splicing into the harness.


My two questions on this are:

a) will this melt the harness?
b) what amperage rating would I have to look for on the switches?
c) would I need a relay in place somewhere?



I do have your basic soldering tools and would use the appropriate gauge wires and would heat shrink all the solder joints to avoid shorts so aside from them being ordinary switches it wouldn't be horribly half-assed.




Also mazdatrix lists two part numbers and items for S4/S5 switches but Icemark only lists his switches for the whole gen irrespective of series anyone have a clear answer to that?




Santiago


Ps- I already have pm's into Icemark about a rebuild of my core and to a seller in the FS section to try to acquire a used unit for temporary replacement so please don't bother telling me about that stuff.

 

a) will this melt the harness?

If the connections aren't very good than yes, but from the sounds of things your harness is already toast and you'll need a new one so you might as well cut it if you want to rig up your switches.

b) what amperage rating would I have to look for on the switches?

20-30amp switches (what most toggles seem to be) will be more than enough.

c) would I need a relay in place somewhere?

Without looking at the wiring diagram, probably not. I think (but don't remember for sure) that all the relays you would need for this are external from the switch. You just may need to hook up a seperate switch for headlights and tail lights. Be sure to check the wiring diagram and make sure you fully understand it before doing this.

The S4/S5 switches are the functionally the same. I believe for '88 they upgraded the internal relay to a more reliable sealed unit which is generally more durable. You can use either.

 

Remember most headlight switches that fail on either the dash lights or parking lights circuits, are caused by resistance and corrosion in the bulb sockets, so make sure you go and clean all the bulb sockets in the tail lights and front bumper lights too and use a little conductive grease or dia-electric grease on all the bulb connections to reduce the possibility water or dirt getting in and causing the same problem all over again.

And I would only use a toggle switch for the parking lights, since the rest of the switch is working. Just put a 15 amp at 12volt (minimum rating) switch between the White/Green and the Red/Black at the light switch harness. Remember Red/black not Red/dark blue) The red/black is the parking lights, and the White/green is the fused power for the parking lights. The dash lights are Red/green if that part of the switch is not working, but it gets its power from the white/green just like the parking lights.