intermitent headlights - (fixed!)

[macca81]

Having probs with the lights in my hilux.

i have a upgraded loom installed, that uses the factory harness as the trigger for the relays, and this has been installed for about 2.5 years with no problems at all. high and low beam earth back to where the battery earths to the body, spots earth back to another part of the body.

now, the problem.
when i use the combination switch to turn on the lights, it works. most of the time. when it works, they will stay on untill i turn them off. however, sometimes they wont turn on. i can sit there and turn it on and off repeatedly (literally hundreds of times on some occasions) and nothing will happen (twice it actually did turn on for me from doing this, but normally not). if i drive off, they will USUALLY turn on within a cpl hundred meters. again, like when they work, once they are on, they stay on till i turn them off.
a couple of days ago, they stopped working completely.

now, i find it unusual that ALL my lights will stop working, and ALL my lights will start working again. the hi/low/spot are on 3 separate relays, of which they all click when i use the combi switch. the earths are not all the same, so i dont think its a poor earth. the odds of all 4 globes or 6 filaments going at once are slim...

now i am going to use this opportunity to re-do the loom, as it is not as 'neat' as i would like. it all works, its just it was done in an hour in a rush and does not look as pretty as i would like. however, as i cant for the life of me work out what my problem is, im not totally confidant that it will fix it... so, any ideas from the brain trust?

[BadMav]

I once had this in my cruiser, turned out to be one wire in the loom that runs up the steering column being pinched by the cowling. May not be the case for you though mate.

[macca81]

power to the relays turned out to be the problem.

after pulling the relays and hitting the terminals with a multimeter, i noticed that there was no power to the number 30 terminal. i had checked the fuse for this previously, and did so again, to find that it was not blown. however, looking closer at the cheap and nasty inline fuse holder, i noted that it seemed to be melted in spots. the multimeter showed that it was not providing a circuit. i replaced it with a heavy duty waterproof inline fuse holder that i had bought to use for when i replaced the whole loom. ill get around to doing the whole loom when i have more time on my hands, as i want to make it all pretty


so, moral of the story: dont use cheap shite when doing electrics!