Got a 70 240z last mopnth. One headlight was dim and looked blackened and partially burnt out. Spent the whole day changing them cause the screws were rusted in place. Got two new lights in but the left one is very dim and the right one is bright--any ideas why one is dim(same one as before changing). MY first posting.

Zeefogey in Gilbert, AZ

 

check your connectors for corrosion. after that, get ahold of a schematic and trace it back.....

 

My brothers 74 260Z was the same, cleaned all of the fuse connections NO more problems anywhere. Take some sand paper and pull each fuse, scuff up the contacts and the fuse ends/or just be safe and buy a pack of fuses and replace with new ones.

 

Was out of town(I,m a pilot) after I posted--cleaned up the fuse last night works good.. Thanks.

Zeefogey in Gilbert AZ

 

i had a problem once where one headlight was significantly dimmer than the other.. ignored it for a while because there were a host of other problems, finally did the whole wire trace thing, it didnt work.. when i went to re-check the connections at the lights, i found that i had missed the problem before. one headlight was totally unplugged, but somehow was still getting dimly illuminated.. i was baffled, but i plugged it in and it worked fine. i hate electrical gremlins.....

 

Sport Z magazine did an article on this recently, the origional wiring was not done the best way, they recomend wiring the OE leads to relays and running new power leads to the headlights so there will be less resistance, I have found that the newer plastic headlights with replaceable bulbs that can be had on ebay for around $40 made a huge difference in mine

 

Many times when one side is brighter it is from a poor ground check for this as well. There is a Z driver that is making and selling a wire harness that is a simple direct drop in. It takes the power for the head lights from the battery through some 12ga wireing through relays that are switched by the stock wireing . This reduces the load on the switch to 3 volts , and allows the use of the higher wattage bulbs with out adding the load on the poor headlight wireing the 240s have. Shipping and all , he is charging only $53.00 . I have one on order at present. He is a member on classiczcar.

 

The relays in the headlight system work great. They are even brighter than the stock wiring. Here is the schimatic.

 

If anyone needs a larger version, shoot me an email. I can attach a larger one thru there.

 

Bringing this thread back to life.

My headlight problem is a little different. I just lost both low beams. Still have both high beams and they're nice and bright. From what I can see of the fuses it looks like there is just one for each side so I'm guessing they're still good. I've checked and cleaned all the connections up front so I don't think the problem is there especially since I lost both of them. They share a common ground with the high beams so that's not it. And I'm guessing there's only one set of contacts in the switch. I'm guessing that leads me to the turn signal/high beam switch. What does anyone else think? AARRGGHH!!

 

When i first got my 280Z, only the low beams worked. After clicking the switch a lot i finally got the highs to work too. I guess the switch had some corrosion built up on it and it just wore off after a while. Same goes for the interior dome light. For about a month after i started drivng the car the light didn't come on when i would open the door. It works fine now. Still doesn't work on passenger side though.

 

my Z had the headlights go out on it once. I noticed that only the left light was shining for a while there, and didn't think anything of it, until the headlights didn't work on low beams anymore. I had to drive home on one high beam, and it sucked. I spent $25 and got new halogen lights from kragen, spent 1/2 hr. and swapped them out, and they work superbly.