Auto headlight conversion with coming home/ leaving home lights

Fitted my new headlight switch that Steve Birchall kindly supplied, I am 'very' happy with it, as that's another thing not to worry about anymore.

Thanks Steve for sorting out the supply of the switches.



Sarge



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Ok so my car just failed it's MOT as a result of one of these auto switches... from same place as the one mentioned here but not bought via birchall.

Reason?

Indicator for fog lamp at back doesn't light up!!!

Never noticed this before and it works fine just doesn't indicate to driver that it's on. I'm assuming it's just dodgy and I've not missed a setting?

Don't suppose you have any Steve? I need to resubmit in next 10 working days.
 
As a temp solution and to pass the MOT, you could put old one back in ?


Sarge

Hi Sarge

I have the old switch itself yes but I destroyed the old dashboard piece of the switch to fit the new one - rendering it useless for exactly the same reason as to why this one failed - ie no indication of when lights are on etc.
 
Or... hand make a cardboard switch surround for your old switch core with holes poked by a pencil and the words ‘fog light’ written on it. I think that would suffice legally.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Like the cardboard suggestion Alex.

Yes came across as petty to me also but its the rules :(

Steve has a fairly tatty switch off the breaker that he's sold to me for peanuts so will bung that on for MOT retest.
 
Ok so my car just failed it's MOT as a result of one of these auto switches... from same place as the one mentioned here but not bought via birchall.

Reason?

Indicator for fog lamp at back doesn't light up!!!

Never noticed this before and it works fine just doesn't indicate to driver that it's on. I'm assuming it's just dodgy and I've not missed a setting?

Don't suppose you have any Steve? I need to resubmit in next 10 working days.

i just checked mine and it does the same thing.

So i have the same problem.

I will I’ll see what I can find out but it looks like the only option is to swap it back for the MOT.

If you get get hold of a worn and therefore cheap standard surround with a worn standard light switch. It should only take a few minutes to swap.

I can can understand the rule but the fog lights cancel when the lights are switched off (or when the switch is returned to "Auto") and only come on when you pull the switch out so it is not a major safety factor.

Steve B
 
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just checked mine and the fog light on the switch tights up green when pressed/pulled

so its working fine ?
 
just the one but I don't have front fogs on the car
The green lights up at the first pull and indicates front fogs (which you don’t have) the second position is rear fogs. So you basically have the same issue, in that you do not get a warning when your rear fogs are on.

But as I say, not really a safety issue but it is an MOT fail if they want to implement the letter of the law.

Sorry if this is is an issue for anyone. It was something I hadn’t noticed.

Steve B
 
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If anything I'm glad I was able to highlight this for anyone who has the switch. It works well but as Steve days I don't see this as a huge issue operationally is really all about the letter of the law.

Get your cardboard looked out and cut to the right size is what I say :)
 
I emailed the supplier and got what looks like a fairly stock reply. They sent the electronic version of the paper based instructions plus a youku video that show what the instructions say but it's all in Chinese!

I've replied back again but suspect given what I've seen the bottom light is used only for indication of setting changes and not what the original designed switch does.
 
Done a thorough Google search and found a few threads dating back to 2012 - all these switches don't seem to light up the bottom fog light indicator - even the non auto ones.
No solution.
 
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