Scary experience last night on highway

I was going from Chennai to Trichy (around 320km). Beautiful GQ quality road.

Started at 3:30am with my son strapped in and sleeping at the back.

Around 5:00am, I am doing around 90kmph. I flash my light before trying to overtake a lorry. No vehicles coming at the back.

And what happens when I flash? All the lights go off! Head lamps, parking lamps, high or low beam nothing works.

I had to turn on the hazard lamps to make an emergency stop at the side. Just imagine.. doing 90 at night and the windscreen suddenly turning completely black. Still feel a little shaky. If something had been coming behind me, then it was bye bye rdr.

I stopped at the side. Kept hazards on. And tried switching off the headlights and turning them on again.. did not work. I turned off everything, checked all 4 fuses (low/high beam, left/right side). Everything was fine. Suddenly saw that the fog lamps were still working.

Thought of calling the emergency number. But first decided to play with the stalk. Then after fiddling with it for some 10 minutes and treating it really rough, everything magically turned on again!

So it might have been a mechanical problem with the stalk.

I took it to the service center in Trichy, and they couldn't find anything wrong. It seems to be perfectly fine now. Maybe I should get the stalk changed in any case.

p.s. The service center guy in trichy says, a Logan comes for service there that has already done more then 300000km! And obviously it has no problems like headlamps turning off.

I would suspect a loose wire/connector than the switch itself.

Do you have the stock headlight and bulbs (no upgrade to higher wattage with a relay, etc.) ?

i dont even know where this stalk thing is located and what is it supposed to do. grateful if you can share that part....

hey its really a heart pounding experiencing man. There's a problem with hazard warning switch in my Logan. I told the service center to fix it once. Since they don't have spare switch at that time, they just tightened some wires. But yesterday after 1 yr I found that the switch not working again. These are emergency functions and should be kept under regular scan.

One concern I have is that the air bag that comes with our Logan has that been tested during servicing? Because this is something that, GOD forbids, comes into use very rarely. It might happen that it doesn't work when it's required.

@rdr: Please let me know also what this stalk is? Is this the left side light control lever u are talking of ?

Hi rdr,

It is very risky to go blind when it is dark and at that speed.... only the driver knows the scary moment...... Pl give your car through check up and let Logon engineers also have a look at it... All lights going off but the engine still working shows something wrong with the electrical circuit... Was the AC functioning when the lights go off.......It is worthwhile, this is reported to MR and the feedback is posted in this forum....

dtandon wrote:

I would suspect a loose wire/connector than the switch itself.

Do you have the stock headlight and bulbs (no upgrade to higher wattage with a relay, etc.) ?

It is the stock bulbs. I haven't made any changes to the car.

krishnasrs wrote:

Was the AC
functioning when the lights go off.......It is worthwhile, this is
reported to MR and the feedback is posted in this forum....

Will do this.. everything else was working. Like the hazard lamps, fogs, internal lights, AC.

nayandeep wrote:

@rdr: Please let me know also what this stalk is? Is this the left side light control lever u are talking of ?

Yup.. the light control lever.