Hello,

bought myself a 78 clubman the other day and been driving to work, and its been a blast to drive. One issue im having is with the lights. On a few occasions (driving on the highway!) the lights will just turn off and about a minute later will turn back on. it happened once in dry weather, but on the highway it happened to be wet.

Any clues to what might be causing this?

Kinda scary them going off while driving at speed

obvious starting point, looking for a poor contact, first place to look is the switch is it getting hot? poor contact switch heats up breaks down lights go out then it cools down and works again for a while

Check if its related to the indicator stalk being old or worn.

I've seen it where the headlights will turn off when you start/cancel the indicator or when you switch on brights

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1975 Hairy Lime/White Clubby
Build Thread: http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80657

Also check the headlight switch. Both it and the high/low beam switch cop about 10A load, so it's a good idea to add a headlamp relay to the system. This stops the switches burning out as they then carry only a few mA of current.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I'd start with the main headlight switch. Carefully pull it out and disassemble it. Clean it out and put it back together.

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I've had success spraying toggle switches with CRC contact cleaner in situ. Dunno if it works with the rocker ones.
Old rocker switches are more fragile to get out of the panel unbroken, it could be worth trying this first.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Yeah give that a go first definitely. I've had the rocker switches full of gunk, which no amount of spray would clear without disassemble.

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My first thought is that someone may have upgraded the headlights without upgrading the wiring and relays.

If the car has H4 lights it needs relays.
If the car has a rocker headlight switch it needs relays.
If the car has the high beam switch on the blinker switch it needs relays.

I fixed the headlight rocker switch on a Moke on the way to Rylstone last year by spraying it with CRC Brakleen in situ and flicking it on and off a gazillion times.

So you moved the gunk inside the switch far enough away from the contacts?

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Yep. The switch had been glued into the dash so I couldn't do it properly so I improvised.
I used the squirt tube to get it to spray into the right place and then scrubbed the contacts clean with some rapid switching action.
The gunk gets rinsed out with the CRC and then it evaporates dry.

CRC Brakeleen and CRC Contact Cleaner are pretty much the same stuff in different coloured cans.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, turns out the rocker was full of gunk. I've added a relay also to preserve the switch.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm sure I'll be back shortly with more questions

Would love to see a video of that one

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"Show me the Mini!"