Hello guys,

First af all, I want to apologize for the lenght of this message and thank the ones braves to read this in order to help me.

I own an 1989 Iroc and I've been struggling for few days to fix the whole light system which was a mess. (it seems to me there are mistakes in the Haynes and Chilton manuel)

Could someone tell me exatly how the lights work? Which light or which filament is supposed to go on when Lo beam, Hi Beam...

What I have is:

2 upper lights at the extremities of the grill: 1 little bulb for the parking light
1 bulb with 2 filaments

2 upper lights closer to the grill: 1 bulb with 2 filaments

2 lights at the extremities below

2 lights close to the number plate


So when I pull the switch light on second position (and the dimmer switch on Lo beam) I guess it's only the smallest filament of the 2 upper lights at the extremities of the grill which go on.

And the when I switch to Hi Beam it's the other filament of the same bulb which go on plus one of the two filaments of the 2 upper lights close to the grill.

So my questions are:
Are the 4 upper lights supposed to go on when switched on Hi Beam position?
Why are there two filaments in the 2 lights close to the grill?



This is another problem:

When I turn on the fog lights it's only the 2 lights close to the plate which go on. What about the 2 other lights at the extremities below the headlights? Are they fog light too?

Thank you very much for reading this. Hope you could help me out.

 

When you pull the headlight switch to the first position, the parking lights (and dash lights) should come on. These are the small bulb (part # 194) in the side markers, and the low-intensity filament in the 2-filament bulbs (part # 1157 or 2057) at the lower corners.

When you pull the switch to the 2nd position, the parking lights should not change, and the more focused filament of the outer headlights (the low beams, which have 2 filaments, part # 4656) should come on.

When you switch to high-beam headlights, the inner headlights (the high beams, with a single filament, part # 4651) should come on, and the outer ones should change to the other filament.

When you turn on the turn signals or the hazard flashers, the high-intensity filament of the bulbs in the valence should come on alternately. The low-intensity filament should remain on if the parking lights are on or off if they are off. The side marker lights should blink opposite to the turn signal lights if the parking lights are on; that is, when the turn signal blinks on, the side marker should blink off. They should blink together if the parking lights are off.

The fog lights are the 2 near the center of the grill and are completely independent of all the other lights. Can't remember the part # and I'm too lazy to look it up.

 

A note on fog lights (from Jim85IROC) that I thought was interesting:

From 86-up, the fog lights will work with the parking lights on and when the low beams are on. They won't work with high beams.

JamesC

 

Thanks a lot. So the lights which are on the same level than Fog lights are Parking light and low beam light too? (the little bulb located in the headlight above is also a parking light)

I'm sorry I'm not anglophone: what is a "side marker"

You say " the inner headlights (the high beams, with a single filament, part # 4651)", so it think you're talking about the lights which are close to the grill. Those seem to go on only in hi beam but also have 2 filaments.

As for the dash light it does not go on with the first position it's a potentiometer which works alone (but that's ok in my car)

Thank you James too. Yes I knew the fog light relay is activated only when you switch the lights but I didn't know it wouldn't work with Hi beams.

Once again thatks a lot

 

Side markers are the amber colored lights on the side.

 

The high beam bulbs should only have one filament. 2 prongs on the connector. (in the US anyway... could be different for export, I don't know, but I doubt it) The low beams have 2 filaments, 3 prongs: one is common, one is the low beam filament, the 3rd is the filament for the high beam setting.

The dash lights come on with the parking lights, and then you control their brightness with the potentiometer. The connection that connects the dash light circuit to the parking light circuit is actually internal to the headlight switch. Unless the wiring has been seriously hacked up. And if your wiring has been hacked, then there's no way to know what any of it will do; all we can do out here, is tell you how the factory built it.

Your car should have 4 headlights. 2 are right next to the fender, those are the low beams. The 2 inner ones, closer to the grille, are the high beams. The parking light / turn signal is down low near the corner of the car. The fog lights are down low right next to the grille.

I don't know about "little bulb located in the headlight above"; never seen that.

Maybe your car's lights have been modified?

Maybe pictures would help?

 

X2 on the pictures .

Having spent time in Europe , and having some experience repairing a car or two there , I can tell you that every European car I saw had headlights of the non sealed beam variety (Most seemed to be H4) , and there was always a small bulb in the headlight housing along with the bigger actual headlight bulb (real small , smaller than an 1156 for ex.) . Granted , these were all 2 headlight systems instead of 4 , but I can imagine someone likely bought custom housings to specifically accomodate a smaller bulb in with the headlight . The way it worked was that the small bulb would be lit whenever the parking lights were on , and when the headlights were on it was impossible to see whether the little bulb was on or off . It led me to wonder if there was some European regulation that requires the headlights to light up dim when the running lights were on , as some kind of safety measure ?

 

That's a possibility... I've seen that there on newer cars, but out of the very few of these that I've ever seen there, haven't noticed it...

 

Hi Guys,

thank you so much for all those info. Yes indeed, things are done differently here in Europe. I don't know why but here the parking lights are put with the headlamp bulbs.

I've spent few hours but everything is ok now thank to you advice.