Headlight help sometimes work?
 

1999 Cherokee stock
Got ready to head home tonight and headlights won't come on . I cycle switch several times and nothing... Wait cycle switch lights come on and work normally. It has done this before and appears to be random. Has anyone had a similar problem ? It seems like a switch or circuit going bad vrs a fuse or ground?
Thx
Jacksonbase

Probably the headlight switch. My 2000 had a similar problem when I bought it a few months ago. I had to play around with it to find the sweet spot where the headlights and tail lights both would work. I replaced the switch with a cheap ebay (standard motor parts) one and it works fine now.

Headlight switch.

Are you running the stock 35W sealed beams or have you replaced them?

All stock parts

I'm going to order headlight switch. Is the airtex 20$ switch ok ? I know the factory part to be like $70 but money is tight!

It should be fine. You can find the standard motor products one on ebay for like $16 shipped. Thats the one I used.

Headlight switch is the most likely culprit but could be a headlight relay. In the fuse box under hood, there are several relays that are the same part number and could be swapped around to located a bad relay and see if the problem follows the relay. Perhaps the horn relay as a good swap for test.

XJs don't have any relays in the headlight system.