General Punto MK2 Lights operation explained

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General Punto MK2 Lights operation explained

cyberplayer

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I find my dipped lights to be rather dim and so quite unsafe for night driving. Ive got an MK2 ELX JTD that is lowered by 35mm (actually this is irrelevant as lights have always been funny) and no fog lights. I took it to an independent local garage who were equally baffled by the system.


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Above is a sketch ;) of my headlights. When I turn the light knob once, Parking lights activate (denoted by underline in square brakets)

When I turn the light knob twice, Parking lights (denoted by underline in square brakets) and dipped light (denoted by symbol in curly brakets) light up. This is the problem, its not bright enough and the aim is still low even when the adjuster on the dashboard is set to 0 (highest aim).

Now in addition, when I push lights knob back, full beam also activates (denoted by symbol in square brakets) and shows up to a mile ahead infront.


One strange thing..If I push the light knob back repeatedly like as though I was flashing someone, after about 5 times I hear a relay click and only the high beam and parking lights stay on (denoted by underlined brackets). dipped beam goes off.... Makes me wonder if this is actually instead the dipped beam.

Im wondering if there is something electrically wrong or if this is normal.
Any suggestions appreciated.
 
The standard lights on the Mk2 are quite poor to be honest. From what you have described, it sounds as though your lights are all working correctly.
Firstly, Have you had the alignment of your lights checked (like when an MOT is done), as although you have the electronic adjuster set to 0, they can still be adjusted further up if necessary manually.
Secondly, how old are your bulbs in your headlights, and have you checked the markings on them to ensure that they are the correct voltage (eg 12v instead of 24v), as having 24v bulbs in a 12v system will mean that they will only be very dim.

Hope that helps,
Alan
 
thx for the reply, ill try to check out the alignment soon. I've already experimented with some aftermarket bulbs to the correct spec and little improvement. How can I manually adjust the beam further up as I think that could make a huge difference.
 
There are two ways. Unfortunately you need to take the headlights out of the car, which means removing the front bumper!
First way it to remove the 3 bolts that hold the headlights in and use washers under the bottom bolt to lift the light physically up by a few mm at a time.
The second way is to remove the electronic adjuster at the back of each light and push the bulb assembly up with your hand and then replace the electronic adjuster. Its fiddly and difficult to explain but hopefully you will see what i mean when you are looking at the light assembly.

HOWEVER, be careful that you dont adjust them so much that yuort are blinding people coming the other way. As i said, the standard lights on the Mk2 are poo. For example, before i converted mine to HID if i was driving down a road with street lights i couldn't tell if my headlights were on or not! (other than looking at the dash of course!)

Hope that helps,
Alan
 
aah good stuff, ill look into it and possibly conversion to HID conversion.
 
thx for the reply, ill try to check out the alignment soon. I've already experimented with some aftermarket bulbs to the correct spec and little improvement. How can I manually adjust the beam further up as I think that could make a huge difference.

there's white adjuster's on the back of the lights, park on the flat facing a wall with the lights on then turn the adjuster's to set the level then reverse straight back the light patern should stay at the same level

a hid conversion makes a big difference
 
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There are two ways. Unfortunately you need to take the headlights out of the car, which means removing the front bumper!
First way it to remove the 3 bolts that hold the headlights in and use washers under the bottom bolt to lift the light physically up by a few mm at a time.
The second way is to remove the electronic adjuster at the back of each light and push the bulb assembly up with your hand and then replace the electronic adjuster. Its fiddly and difficult to explain but hopefully you will see what i mean when you are looking at the light assembly.

Alan

what a plonk
who would adjust lights like this when there are adjusters on them clearly marked in the owners manual



cyber player you have h4 twin filament bulbs

there fore they should never iluminate at the same time s the bulb would overheat

that's why dipped goes off when you operate main

the only way you can make them light together is pulling the stalk to flash

as said i would have your lights adjusted at an mot centre as as to make sure you don't blind people and brake the law
 
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I thought he had a mk2 with seperate single filament bulbs for full beam and dipped beam! My mistake.
And as for adjusting them, again my mistake, i though he had already tried adjusting them the way it said in the manual! lol
Must have been having a mad 5 mins!

Alan
 
I thought he had a mk2 with seperate single filament bulbs for full beam and dipped beam! My mistake.
And as for adjusting them, again my mistake, i though he had already tried adjusting them the way it said in the manual! lol
Must have been having a mad 5 mins!

Alan

if they have separate bulbs they will do the same thing to save overloading the earth

and also because theres no point in having them both on as main will overpower
 
if they have separate bulbs they will do the same thing to save overloading the earth

and also because theres no point in having them both on as main will overpower

On the mk2 the main and dipped do stay on at the same time.

The dipped beam should only turn off if the front foglights AND main beam are on.
 
Cyber player, just to confirm, do you have a Mk2 Punto with the following headlights?

MK2headlight.jpg




In which case:
1 = Fog Lights
2 = Dipped Beam
3 = Indicator
4 = Sidelight
5 = Full beam

When you turn the switch to the first position, only No4 (Sidelights) should turn on. When you turn the switch to the second position, No4 (Sidelights) AND No2 (Dipped Beam) should come on. When you push the stalk away from you WITH THE HEADLIGHTS ALREADY ON then No2,4 and 5 should be on. If you pull the stalk towards you WITHOUT THE HEADLIGHTS ON then only No 5 should light up.
If you have the fog lights on (No1) and then push the stalk to select full beam (no5) then the dipped beam lights (No2) will be turned off.

The correct bulb for No2 is a 12v H7 55W single filament bulb
The correct bulb for no 5 is also a 12v H7 55W single filament bulb

And with regards to adjustment - From the handbook:-
The car is fitted with an electrical device for correcting the headlight slant. The device can be operated with the ignition key at MAR and the headlights on. When the car is loaded it slopes backwards. This means that the headlight beam rises. In this case it is necessary to return it to the correct position.
Proceed as follows:
Hold button pressed to increase by 1 position
Hold button pressed to decrease by 1 position

There are 3 positions in total with position 0 being the highest that can be achieved from inside the car.

the method of adjustment that i mentioned should only be used if the method described in the handbook (pressing the buttons on the dash) and the method described by toad101 does not increase the height of the beam satisfactorily.

Hope that clarifies any confusion caused!
Alan
 
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When you turn the switch to the first position, only No4 (Sidelights) should turn on. When you turn the switch to the second position, No4 (Sidelights) AND No2 (Dipped Beam) should come on. When you push the stalk away from you WITH THE HEADLIGHTS ALREADY ON then No2,4 and 5 should be on.

Thanks for this, Alan, as my lights are causing me some confusion as well - this thread looks like the best place to ask!

When I turn the headlights on, both dipped beam lights come on.

When I push the stalk for high beam, one of three things happens at random:
- Most of the time, the dipped beam lights stay on and the high beam lights come on
- Sometimes the dipped beam lights go off and the high beam lights come on
- About 10% of the time, the dipped beam lights go off and only one (the left) high beam light comes on (!)

In the latter case it leaves me driving into a strange round puddle of light on the road. The headlight bulbs have all been replaced by the previous owner to try and cure this fault (they are four H7 bulbs as you said.)

I expect that I have to take the switch apart - perhaps this is the cause of the dipped beam lights staying on or not staying on. What is the expected behaviour again? All cars I've had in the past would turn the dipped beam OFF when the high beam goes on. Even the cars with four round headlights, as usually the outer headlights would have a dual-filament bulb (my Punto doesn't have dual-filament bulbs).

As for one high beam headlight sometimes not going, is there a separate relay for each side (and perhaps that is what is at fault?)

Thanks for any light you can shed on this (har har)
-Alex
 
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