Electrical: Headlight problem after frontal welding

[Jungle_Jim]

Hi all

This week I had some welding done on the forward ends of the front chassis rails - in a previous post last week I showed photos of the rust around the front bumper mounts.

Well - since the welding the right/off-side headlight has gone strange. The right headlight is now very dull, and the small indicator on the right wing is stuck on when I put the headlights on (however the indicators seem to work fine, and that wing indicator blinks when the right indicators are on). Plus the right high-beam doesn't work. Plus when the headlights are on, the high-beam light on the dash is half on, then goes full on as normal when high beam is selected. And - strangely the windscreen wipers are now stuck on whatever I do, and I've had to take that fuse out.

A possibility is that during the welding, some wires got heated up and the insulation melted and there are short-circuits going on. Is that a reasonable guess? He didn't remove or disturb the headlights during the welding. And why the windscreen wipers are now stuck on I really don't know.

Also, to be honest, I am quite dubious about the fellow who did the welding - what would happen if he began welding without disconnecting the battery? Why is the car having multiple electrical problems after welding?

I was supposed to go away tonight, and haven't had time to look in daylight yet.

Thanks for looking at this,
John

[rustytoba]

Hi Jim

Just a quick thought at this hour, potentially welding without isolating the battery and sensitive electronics like ecu 's etc can lead to a nightmare but at the moment you seem to have enough on your plate. The wipers being on all the time may be because the headlamp wipers main loom is on the rhs and a suppose is that was fried it could short out and cause the main wipers to come on. The easiest thin to do would be to trace each wire for the lights and find the offending item, also as wires conduct heat pretty well its possible that the welding could have fried the main headlights relay on the lhs inner wing it controls most of the lights you seem to have an issue with including the tell tail main beam lamp on the dash.

Hope this has been of some use

Rusty