I accidentally shorted to earth the live wire to the rear of the Headlight retractor overide switch on the dashboard center console. Now the headlight retractors will not work. I have had all of the standard fuses checked to no avail. The headlights are stuck in the up position. My local garage coudl not work it out. To work around it they have wired a separate power source to the back of the switch so I can now raise and lower the lights but they do not automatically come up when I turn on the lights (in fact they start going up and down repeatedly). Any idea what is wrong and how the problem can be properly fixed. I am not keen to just replace the retractor relays (expensive) but am keen to know if there is something else I can try (soem hideen inline fuse/diode etc etc that can be quickly fixed. What I am confused about is that the live lead that was going into to the back of the switch was live but now it is dead - what has blown? Any held / advise woudl be gratefully received. Thanks, Ben

 

Have you checked the switch itself?

 

There are 2 power sources to the retractors.
One should be hot all the time, while the other is the switched "kicker" power. This type of setupusually has a parking circuit.Think wiper motor.

 

the wire diag. shows the wires going to a Retractable headlight unit. Try as I could I couldn't find anything said in the manual about it. where it is and so on. But I'd try there first. Can you tell me what wire colors you shorted and which is dead? It doesn't show any of these lines fused. You might ask the Mazda dealer parts dept. about this part also and see what they have to say about it. 2 out of the 3 wires go to this and the 3rd goes to the updown headlight relays. I'd look into this part. I'll continue to look around the manual to see if there is anything said about it but so far nothing. It's the best I can do for you.

 

junk yard for the relays? might be a cheap fix and easy way to trouble-shoot.

 

i have a 97 with the same issue. even thu i dont recall shorting anything out. i replaced the relay. it worked a couple times than it stoped working. and the relay smells burnt. any ideas what will burn the relay but not blow a fuse