Without actually experiencing your symptoms, I would guess the trouble is in
the Combination Switch itself. The switch that operates the turn signals and
high/low beam is called the Combo Switch, by the way.

There is no relationship in the turn signal circuit and the high/low beam
circuit, except the mechanical parts of the combo switch. Now that the
trouble is getting worse, this takes me even more strongly to the switch
itself.

The switch can be relatively easy to replace, but I haven't looked at how my
BMW is assembled. I have replaced turn signal/combo switches in the past,
and as a general rule they are pretty easy once the steering wheel is off of
the car. There will be a wire loom that snakes down the inside of the
steering column and has a connection in the vicinity of the brake pedal, and
frankly snaking the old wire out and the new wire in can be the tirckiest
part of the job.

$800 seems to be a very steep price for this repair. I have no idea what the
switch will cost, but I will take a stab that the repair time should be on
the order of about 2 hours for a trained technician. If the shop rate was
$75.00, then the labor would run $150 and the rest would be the cost of the
switch.



"snuka" > wrote in message
nk.net...
> I've searched the net and haven't found a solution to this problem yet.
> I own an 87 325iC. Starting about two years ago, with my headlights on,
> whenever I used the turn signal and completed a turn and it would snap
> back to the normal position, my high beams would come on. I explained
> the problem to a mechanic that told me it would cost about $800 to fix.
> I decided to just not use the signal lights at night. Now it's gotten
> worse. Whenever I turn on my headlight, my high beams come on and I
> can't turn them off. If I jam a peice of folded paper behind the turn
> signal stick, it will move it up enough for the high beams to turn off
> but then I can't use the turn signal or the paper will fall out and I'm
> back to brights.
> Has anybody else ever experienced this? Any idea what could be causing
> the problem? How hard would it be to fix this myself? Thanks.