headlight stalk issue

[russdbl6156]

Hi folks, i wonder if anyone can help with this,went to a local guy to have a spare keyfob done.All went well until he tried to pair the key to the car.Hold main beam on the stalk and turn key to position one then flash lights.This is where it all went wrong,the headlight flash is turning on the full beam but the lights are staying on and not flashing.It takes a couple of pulls on the stalk to cancel the full beam.He gave up after a few tries and pointed me in the direction of an auto electrician.On the way home the trip computer would not change on the stalk button.So long winded way to my question.... is the stalk gubbed or is it a headlight issue.Any help would be greatly appreciated

[PaulGover]

There have been several reports over the years of those stalks failing, so that might be the issue, thought the described behaviour is a bit odd. Does pushing the stalk, to select main beam, work correctly?

It looks a bit like your stalk has been back-dated to the last century| XJS and older XJ6 stalks switched between headlights on and headlights off on each successive pull. (The relay contained a square contact block that rotated 90 degrees on each pull, and one pair of sides had connectors, the other insulators. Modern cars use computers.)

I'm not sure of the wiring, but certainly the rotary switches use a single wire for all the positions; they are actually click stops on a resistor chain or variable resistor. and the ECU measures the resistance to determine which stop is selected. This obviously could apply to all the other switch settings by choosing appropriate resistors. Having a single wire reduces cost and probably improves reliability.