Low beam not working - Pointy.

While out on my bike yesterday (2003 Pointy S) I noticed that my low beam on my headlight has stopped working. However "PASS" and high beam still work.

I have checked the fuse and am assuming the bulb is okay as there is only 1 H4 bulb in each light for high and low beam. Can anyone shed any light (Pardon the pun) on what the issue could be? Really needs sorting as the days are getting darker! Any help would be appreciated. Cheers

[aesmith]

Why do you assume the bulb is OK? H4 bulbs have two separate filament, one for low and one for high beam. Most likely the bulb is failed.

I've the same problem, or had the same problem before my SV and a car had an intimate conversation.

After some research, it apparently can be quite commonly the connector. The issue with this being, it's a total ball ache to reach on a pointy. Full nose cone off to get to.

Cheers for the replies. Just checked the bulbs. The filaments seem to be okay (no burnt out filaments etc.) I apologise for my lack of knowledge with electrical items but im thinking it could be a fault with the wiring harness somewhere??

[aesmith]

Has the low beam failed on both sides? If not then try swapping the two bulbs. I can't remember whether I've ever had a failed H4 that looked OK, but I always check with a meter in any case.

Yep both sides are out which puzzles me even more as it would seem that for that to happen, both bulbs would have failed at the same time? I'll fetch a pair of H4 bulbs from the shop tomorrow and replace them to see if I get any luck!

[Bibio]

when you remove the nose cone there is a multi connector that feeds power to the indicators and lights. its common for this connector to get 'furred up' and as such the brass contacts stop becoming a contact or at worst crumble into dust.

i have found no other way to get at the connector but to remove the nose cone, the good news is that its a fairly simple task and requires only 8 bolts and 4 screws to be removed.

[richardah]

I have had the same problem on my pointy this week went through everything ended up being the yellow block connector in front of the air box , found it was getting hot so pulled it apart and fount one of the terminals was a bit burnt so cut the white wire of either side and rejoined it with a pair of blue spade terminals and reconnect the yellow block. so my low beam is working ok now.

Thanks for the replies. Had the bike apart yesterday. Chased the wires down from the battery right to the front of the bike. Everything was getting 12v. All connections seemed okay and there were no apparent split in the wires. Spent about an hour trying to figure out why the low beam wasn't working but unfortunately I had to stop as it was getting late. Anyway, rebuilt the bike, turned on the ignition and to my surprise the lights came on!!

Am a bit puzzled as to what's going on. All seems bizzare as to how the light stops working on its own. Anyway, all seems to be okay for now (touchwood) will keep you guys posted!

[ophic]

I'll bet a pound to a penny it's what Bibio says. Having had the same issue, it can work quite ok then stop working when you hit a pothole, only to be restored by a similar impact. Eventually it gets bad enough not to work at all.

My lights we're actually on but so dim you couldn't see it in daylight.

It's common to route this particular connection outside the connector block, as a fix. I just bent the pins a bit to make a better contact. Simple to diagnose once you've got the front cowling off.