Headlights on and on

Probably more electrical woes heading my way but here goes. Remember the cover came off my indicator light? Yeah well, haven't got the replacement yet and it's spent two weeks driving in the rain. Anyway, battery has steadily seemed less enthusiastic each time I come to start and now has required a bit of a charge before it wants to start. So, charged battery in situ after disconnecting the leads. Reconnected and to my delight, she started first time. To my surprise, the side lights came on even though they are switched off in the cab (more brightly on the drivers side to be fair) and the dashboard tells me I'm on full beam. I'm thinking that I should take a hairdryer to indicator bulb before I go anywhere else, or does anyone think that I've messed up the 'wires of medusa' that sit in the crack of mount doom in the boot when I disconnected the battery? Anyone else had headlights being silly?

currently the left hand headlight will not light up when the lights are turned on and shows as high beam on but a quick clump with the palm of my hand on the lens and the loose connection sorts it's self out and it's sorted till I use high beam or turn them on next I need to tighten up the block terminals but it is inside the light not the boot.

Check the headlamp connectors, they're prone to corrosion & falling to bits.

This is probably a few things happening at the same time.

Depends how un-molested the wiring is, if things have been altered in the past I can't really say much. But the switch mechanism in the steering stalks are dodgy and if the little spring/ball bearing goes dodgy then you could end up with odd things like this maybe.

Seeing as your van had a respray, someone must have done some stripping and rebuilding in its past.

Ok, so all the vipers nest all looked fine but I didn't go near any of the stuff that looked taped up (there is a leisure battery in the back to complicate matters but I've had them both on charge now). So did as you suggested and went to the headlamp connectors. I ended up disconnecting the tilt servos as this seemed to be a problem, then literally 'swapping' over the headlight fuses. Seem confused?

So with both headlights connected, they both gave me sidelights when all was turned off and I got a headlight on just one side even with both fuses in. Swap over the fuses and the headlight would swap sides. So I thought the fuse was the problem so I put a 5A fuse in it from my battery charger as a temporary fix. Got sidelights and headlights on both sides now but I've got no tilting thing on them (not really that big a deal) and which ever side has the 10A fuse is brighter than the other headlight.

Sounds like a rats nest mate! Good luck

Ha ha, thought so. Was all fine until the other night. There'll be a silly short somewhere. I'll find it. ^_^

Sounds like an earthing fault. Look closely at the connectors. Im betting they are corroded. Pull the wires, bet one comes out. New ones are a couple of quid from accessory shops. You also need the headlamp levellers to work for the mot now.

Phooey. Right, it'll do for tomorrow. She'll have an appointment with the doctor this week. ;-)