MTH PS3 HEADLIGHT WON'T WORK AFTER FACTORY RESET, WHAT NEXT?

Return to MTH

I've had it more than a year.  I am willing to take a chance on troubleshooting it with some advice.

Try the HDLT (7 key) on the remote.

Is the headlight on a bracket mounted on the frame so direct connection to the PS-3 board via wires, or does it get connected via the spring contacts on the shell?

If spring contacts, they may need to be stretched to make better contact.

Test LED in another spot, or via battery with limit resistor.  If bad replace.

If LED good trace wires for a break, bad connection, etc... 

If wiring is good, may have blown a FET on the board, and that will be a harder issue to resolve.

A little more information would be helpful.

Did the headlight ever work? If it did previously work, did you or anyone else open the engine up since the headlight last worked? Why did you do the Factory Reset?

Hi Barry,

The headlight used to work.  Sometimes there was a delay on it coming on.  I did the reset as instructed by the manual to see if I accidentally hit the wrong sequence of whistle and bells as I operate conventionally without the DCS system.  After the first video below, I did the factory reset which did get the green marker lights to work, but not the headlight.

UPDATE!

I took off the shell and reconnected the mini modular plugs and unscrewed the bracket housing the number board lights and reseated the led headlight boot to the lens and reassembled and stil not working.  

How can I next troubleshoot witha multimeter and what kind of readings should I be looking for?

Swap a different LED to the Headlight plug and the headlight to it.  IF the original HL Led lights in the new plug, something wrong in the wiring or circuit board.  If it doesn't light, but the one you swapped into the headlight plug does light, the LED is bad.  Get a new one.  G

Try this

1. Headlight button (7)

2. Even thought there is no ditch lights, try the ditch light settings on the remote.

3. All else fails your last resort could be fixing it or have a MTH Authorized repair man work on it.

Chas,

Swap a different LED to the Headlight plug and the headlight to it.  IF the original HL Led lights in the new plug, something wrong in the wiring or circuit board.  If it doesn't light, but the one you swapped into the headlight plug does light, the LED is bad.  Get a new one. 

A word of caution.

It's possible that the FET that controls the headlight has failed and now sends track voltage directly to the headlight. This would cause the LED to overload and burn out.

If this is the case, then turning on full power could subsequently burn out the new LED, as well. To prevent this, proceed as follows:

• Turn up track power slowly and just enough to get the engine to start up, making sounds
• As soon as it does, interrupt power to put it into reverse

If the front headlight stays on, the FET has most likely failed and, if operated at your normal track voltage, will eventually burn out the replacement LED. This would necessitate a PS3 board repair or replacement.

If the front headlight doesn't come on at all, you need to search for a wiring issue.

If all works well, you simply had an LED that failed.

Good luck!

Tim,

Try this

1. Headlight button (7)

2. Even thought there is no ditch lights, try the ditch light settings on the remote.

3. All else fails your last resort could be fixing it or have a MTH Authorized repair man work on it.

Chase previously posted that he operates conventionally.

If you can safely (without shorting to each other, to chassis, etc) access the two wires/contacts going to the headlight LED, measure the DC Voltage with your multimeter.  It should read 0V when headlight off, and several volts (but less than 5V) when headlight on.  It will read + or - depending on which way you attach red/black meter leads but it's the on-off control-ability that you're testing for.

So if the rear operating headlight unplugs, I can simply unplug the front headlight to test the LED in the rear headlight socket?

Yes.   G