Auto dim failing February 14, 2013, 04:15:38 PM My auto dim brights have been acting up for a while, and now its gotten worse. It went from not dimming, or dimming and not coming back on, to now flashing the brights at oncoming traffic. Anybody know if its the switch, or the sensor behind the mirror, that's faulty? Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #1 – February 16, 2013, 05:10:16 PM I had to fix this same problem in my '88 Bird. The sensor behind the mirror controls the auto-dim.Disconnect the electrical connector going into the sensor behind the mirror. Get a paper clip and jump pins 1&4 (first and last pin in the connector). If everything works normal again, then the Auto-Dim sensor is faulty. Replace it and all will be well again. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #2 – February 16, 2013, 07:11:52 PM Are your headlights flashing completely off and then back on? Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #3 – February 17, 2013, 12:44:20 AM sometimes, it works perfectly fine...even to the point where it will keep the lights off if there's another car in the close distance, to avoid turning them on and then off again quickly...but other times they will turn right off and ill have to play with the dial to get them back on, or they wont dim at all and ill have to do it manually. On rare occasions, like the other day, they'll flash frantically; once was at oncoming traffic, the other was when i was turning a corner under a streetlamp. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #4 – February 17, 2013, 06:05:37 AM Classic Auto-Dim flakyness. Replace the sensor, or bypass it like I said earlier, by disconnecting the harness, and jumping pins 1&4. If the Auto-Lamp sensor was going out, your lights would flash completely off and on, and not just flash dim to bright. The auto-dim sensor is easy to replace, takes all of 3 minutes. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #5 – February 17, 2013, 08:23:21 AM I don't even use it. My 88 has it, but I learned 10 years ago when i had my 87 that AutoDim was just unusable. Try driving through town at night after the lights switch to flashing yellow. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #6 – February 17, 2013, 05:23:26 PM I actually missed the second portion to your post earlier lol. Im not electrical savvy, what would connecting the 2 pins do? If the wire wasnt plugged into the sensor, wouldnt the auto dim not work at all? Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #7 – February 17, 2013, 06:43:56 PM No, but that is the point here though. Once you bypass the sensor and everything works again, albeit manually, you know for a fact that the sensor is at fault, and not the auto-dim/lamp control or multifunction switch itself. If you just unplug the electrical connector to the AD sensor without jumping pins 1&4 then your brights won't stay engaged anymore, once you jump the pins your brights will work again manually (controlled thorough the MF switch lever on the column, like always). You can keep it like this and control your brights yourself, or buy a new sensor and install it if you like the auto-dim feature. I really didn't need it, and choose to delete it from my bird, along with auto-lamp. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #8 – February 17, 2013, 06:56:46 PM Ok, ill try that. I was thinking it may have been something wrong with the switch, as in the sensitivity adjustment wasn't working, because sometimes I could fix the problem by rolling the sensitivity back and forth. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #9 – February 17, 2013, 07:26:12 PM It's a known issue, and is pretty much always the sensor with these cars. In fact I'd bet 10:1 it's the sensor. I've fixed many in 80's Mark VII's, Versailles, Cats, and Birds at the resto shop I work in on the weekends. Anytime one comes in with that problem, I know automatically to throw an AD sensor at it. Works Every Time. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #10 – February 17, 2013, 08:20:37 PM Quote from: TheFoeYouKnow;409528I don't even use it. My 88 has it, but I learned 10 years ago when i had my 87 that AutoDim was just unusable. Try driving through town at night after the lights switch to flashing yellow. thats too funny,, so what does a flashing yellow and flashing red mean??????? (see tysons corner northern virginia in the wee hours of the morning)The officer asked me that question and my response was "broke"he kinda looked at me and asked me where i was from and what my lights look like down there in West Virginia,,I said there are none... he said get out of here,,, just be warned a flashing yellow and flashing red means to "stop with caution",,, I almost pissed him off when i looked him dead straight faced and asked "but how else do you execute a proper stop, would the opposite mean skidding to a stop?" Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #11 – February 18, 2013, 11:57:13 PM I didn't think anyone actually used that option. I never use mine since whenever I drive by a new (reflective) road sign my own headlights would set it off. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #12 – February 19, 2013, 02:39:52 PM I almost never use my brights.When I did pizza delivery, I used the autolamp functiom because I would sometimes forget to turn off my headlamps. Eventally, I got so annoyed with the lights turning on under overpasses and people telling me I left my headlights on, that I just turned it off and forgot about it. Quote Selected
Auto dim failing Reply #13 – February 28, 2013, 12:00:17 AM Quote from: Quietleaf;409659I didn't think anyone actually used that option. I never use mine since whenever I drive by a new (reflective) road sign my own headlights would set it off.I've had that happen with mine. Really sucks when driving down a dark road. I use autolamp all the time though. The autodim? Not so much. Quote Selected
Topic: Auto dim failing (Read 2752 times)
previous topic - next topic
