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70 Dodge Charger Headlight Doors stopped opening and closing with light switch

matchek

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Hi all, my 70 Dodge Charger concealed headlight doors stopped working with the headlight switch. When I turn on the switch, my headlights go on and off fine, but the headlight doors do nothing. The doors worked fine up to a few months ago. I have the original service manual and followed instructions to bypass the switch/relay and connect power to the headlight doors from the battery. When I do this the doors do open and close.

I took the Charger to a mechanic for mostly other stuff and he took a look at and thought it was the headlight switch (I think because the power coming from the switch and relay are weak). . I told him I would try to order one online. When I talked to someone on eBay who rebuilds Mopar switches for 20 years, he said that it was unlikely the light switch because the headlights are working. He told me to check the wiring and also the realy and through futher reading off the web, it could be the concealed headlight relay which apparently they don't make any more. But for the headlights to work power has to go through the light switch and concealed headlights relay.

Any idea - the concealed headlights are cool and sucks that they don't work right.

Matchek
 
I had a relay start to go bad many years ago. It turned out that the mounting screws had loosened and disrupted the grounding.
A few years ago, I swapped in a Bosch 5 pin relay to replace the factory headlamp door relay. I was having trouble with an aftermarket headlight relay kit. The factory relay was leaking voltage and making the doors and high beams do weird things. This led me to upgrade the relay to the cheap and easily replaced Bosch relay. If originality isn't important, the Bosch relay is great. It hides up under the dash anyway. The factory relays work fine but can be hard to find.
 
Looking at the wiring diagram, the 6 wires go to the Concealed Headlight Relay (2 for the headlights (which come from the light switch), 2 for the headlight doors, 1 for the key buzzer, and 1 for the parking brake light (or brake warning light). I have to check for the buzzer, and parking brake light, but I do know that the headlights work. Is it possible for the headlight switch to go bad and serve pass through some electricity to some circuits and not others or does when the switch fails, nothing from the switch works?

What makes common sense is the a wire that is loose from the conceled headlight relay to the headlight doors. Where is this relay please? Is this relay inside the car behind the panel or is the relay under the hood attached to the fire wall? For the original relay, do you remember if the headlight door wires plugs into the concealed headlight relay or is it screwed in?

By the way, would you happen to have a link the Bosch relay system? Thank you for your help. Did not think this would be so complicated. lol
 
Looking at the wiring diagram, the 6 wires go to the Concealed Headlight Relay (2 for the headlights (which come from the light switch), 2 for the headlight doors, 1 for the key buzzer, and 1 for the parking brake light (or brake warning light). I have to check for the buzzer, and parking brake light, but I do know that the headlights work. Is it possible for the headlight switch to go bad and serve pass through some electricity to some circuits and not others or does when the switch fails, nothing from the switch works?

What makes common sense is the a wire that is loose from the conceled headlight relay to the headlight doors. Where is this relay please? Is this relay inside the car behind the panel or is the relay under the hood attached to the fire wall? For the original relay, do you remember if the headlight door wires plugs into the concealed headlight relay or is it screwed in?

By the way, would you happen to have a link the Bosch relay system? Thank you for your help. Did not think this would be so complicated. lol
Read through this. I show how I fixed it with the help of some great people on this forum.

Headlight relays on a car with concealed headlights
 
When I talked to someone on eBay who rebuilds Mopar switches for 20 years, he said that it was unlikely the light switch because the headlights are working.
That was me.

Let us know what you find!
 
I rebuild the factory 70 HL relays. I have a couple in stock or can rebuild yours. PM me if you are interested. Joe
 
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