After replacing multi switch, problem still occurs.

[treepete]

I posted this in tahoeforum.com, and figured it wouldnt hurt to ask here as well.

Well, I was hoping to ask this in a new thread, but since this one is already going, I will just continue it here.

So, I'm getting intermittent functionality out of the hi-beams again. The day after replacing the switch, they magically started to work. By the time I drove around for a while, they didn't work again. Then a few days later they did work.. then they didn't work etc.
I'm driving one of the kids around and its drizzling. the hi-beams don't work and the wipers started to jibber-jabber again. I hit the "mist" or single-pass wiper button (actually I think this is a turning motion of the wand) and they did half a stroke, stopped for a few seconds, stuttered a bit, then did 3 strokes, then stopped.
This continued the whole way home, which was concerning because it was hard to see without the brights, road was shiny from the rain etc.
GREAT NEWS! my fog lights have started to work again after not working for some time. I just took one bulb out (about to replace them) and the bulb looked good. so I put it back in there. Boom. Now they work. the next day they didn't work, now they work again.
Hi-beams still don't work.

Today, the straw that broke the camels back, my horn decided to not work. At this point I optimistically tried my brights and they didn't work.

Anyway, I have to guess that this intermittent functionality is being caused by a bad ground somewhere. I know that there are large ground straps that connect the engine to the chassis, and I will try to get some new ones, but is there any wiring that I can specifically check for the hi-beams and horn? maybe a ground at the steering column or something?

Or is there something else I should be reviewing?
Thanks again for your thoughts,
Pete

 

[TigerEyz3]

Don't know the answer to your situation based on personal experience, but it's possible that you got a defective part... cruise control, left/right/hazard signals (brake lights too oddly enough), wipers are all controlled by that multi-switch piece. It's possible that when you installed the new part, that the wiring got pinched somewhere and/or a bad connection was made.

I know that the multi-switch is a pain to deal with on just a hunch, might be easier to start with checking your fuses to make sure they are good and are making good contact.

If you had a bad ground in the big three, you'd have more issues than with your horn and lights.

Wiring specific to the headlights...check the harness that runs along the driver side fender (brown and green wiring - match them from the headlights to get exact color for low/high). I can't speak to the fog light wire colors from memory, as my Tahoe didn't come with factory fogs.

 

[treepete]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I am still having this issue with the bright lights. So today it went insane again, and I caught it with my phone.

I can hear the relay clicking somewhere under the dash. really fast... I get the phone out and hit record. You can hear it in the video, then I turn on my regular lights as you can see the instrument panel lights up. Then i hit the hi beam level on the turn signal stalk. you can see the hi beam indicator blinking super fast, at the same rate that the relay is click (obviously). Additionally, I also notice that the small green lamp on my rear-view mirror is also blinking at the same rate.

 

[drakon543]

It seems like you a nasty short in your steering column. Possibly even bleeding your headlights into the turn signal relay.

 

[treepete]

Drakon, thanks for your thoughts. This situation doesn't seem to coincide with the using of the blinkers. I'm no electrician so I cannot be certain, though. I was hoping the the small green light on the mirror would be another good clue... trying to figure out what circuits are exactly in play here would be helpful.
When I have the speed-clicking relay sound and I turn on the brights, they speed-blink on and off (like a cop car sort of)
The dash lights don't change,but the green light on the rear view mirror blinks also.. just weird.