Few Wiring Questions..

[monkee87 2]

So recently I have been through my front lights loom, engine loom and under the dash loom to re-wire the mess someone had made.

I just have a few problems, even though the car running fine.

So when I turn my ignition on but not start the engine, the only lights that show on the dash are the handbrake on light.. The stop, battery, low oil pressure and temperature hot lights do not work! All the gauges read properly, so it's odd!

I also have the problem of when I switch to full beam, it turns my radio on and off.. And my dimmer switch for the dash lights brightness doesn't work.

 

If anyone could shed some light on what may cause any of these problems, that'd be great!!

[P_Monty 2]

So recently I have been through my front lights loom, engine loom and under the dash loom to re-wire the mess someone had made.

I just have a few problems, even though the car running fine.

So when I turn my ignition on but not start the engine, the only lights that show on the dash are the handbrake on light.. The stop, battery, low oil pressure and temperature hot lights do not work! All the gauges read properly, so it's odd!

I also have the problem of when I switch to full beam, it turns my radio on and off.. And my dimmer switch for the dash lights brightness doesn't work.

 

If anyone could shed some light on what may cause any of these problems, that'd be great!!

 

First thing I'd check is the Earthing - particularly on the bits that don't work...

[monkee87 2]

First thing I'd check is the Earthing - particularly on the bits that don't work...

 

Which ones? I cleaned them all before everything got put back in..

[Pugs in Pieces 0]

if its switching between lights and radio etc it ill be a bad earth somewhere. can be a headache for sure.

[Anthony 1,002]

All the dash lights are triggered by just two wires/connections and it's perfectly plausible that both are amiss, especially if you've still got the brown multiplug of doom in the engine bay. Neither worked on my black 205 when I got it for example owing to the shoddy engine bay wiring.

 

Battery light is wire #7 that goes to the alternator, and the other three lights are from the oil pressure switch (smaller of the two by the alternator) which is wire 30 something from memory.

 

Short the wire to earth and that should make the dash light come on - if it doesn't, work your way back until you find the issue.

[monkee87 2]

I do still have the brown multi plug of doom. I cleaned it up before it went in.. Could it be that I have the wires between the alternator and the oil switch the wrong way round?? My battery is bloody good if that's the case as it's been like this for 3 weeks or so..

What earthing points should I be looking at? Ones by the headlights? Or the ones on the steering column? Or even above the fuse box?? There is a black wire on the engine loom that I didn't plug on to anything around the area of the OSF strut, looks like one of the ones that plug onto the strut itself. On my old car I had one too, but it was a diagnostic one or something, so I assumed that was the case with this one too.

 

Thanks guys.

[smithy 1]

i would check all the earths especially ones by where you have been working.

as for the alternator,oil etc i would get rid of the brown multiplug and also check connections on sensors alternator etc from memory of doing mine i think alternator exciter is orange wire,but a test with meter should tell you it will have 12volt on it when running.

even without this wire the alternator will still charge they self excite over a certain rpm.

[Grim.Badger 15]

So recently I have been through my front lights loom, engine loom and under the dash loom to re-wire the mess someone had made.

I just have a few problems, even though the car running fine.

So when I turn my ignition on but not start the engine, the only lights that show on the dash are the handbrake on light.. The stop, battery, low oil pressure and temperature hot lights do not work! All the gauges read properly, so it's odd!

I also have the problem of when I switch to full beam, it turns my radio on and off.. And my dimmer switch for the dash lights brightness doesn't work.

 

If anyone could shed some light on what may cause any of these problems, that'd be great!!

 

If the dimmer switch or ?Rheometer? is unplugged that stops a lot of dash lights working properly but iirc not the warning lights. Also, I think there are earths under the dash around the fuse box and ECU. If memory serves there is one from the clocks as well, and to be honest there must be one or they wouldn't work! I would pull out the clocks and check the bulbs are all intact and that there is an earth connected somewhere; if you find it/them then try and trace the wiring bundle back behind the dash to find the other end, or just replace it with your own.

 

If you want to check the wiring from the brown multiplug here's my diagram (note that this is only a typical example and yours may be slightly different in setup):

Edited July 4, 2011 by Grim.Badger

[monkee87 2]

Bulbs are all okay, worked fine before I fixed all the wires. I have found that the alternator and oil sender thing are the wrong way around. Went to change them and the terminal fell off the alternator one... Typical..

I'll take the cowling off the steering column and have a look at the earths, maybe the dimmer thing isn't plugged in too.

 

Thanks.

[monkee87 2]

Okay, so I fixed the alternator wire today, and the stop and oil and water lights now work! Hurrah! one problem solved! They were the wrong way round..

 

The battery light doesn't work still though, no idea why. I had a look at the earth points, headlight ones are okay as I cleaned them the other day to get the sidelights to work. Steering column ones are okay, 2 wires had got pinched, so could that be it? They are very flat now.. Glove box should only have one earth block on the double connector yes? The earth in the boot is really grubby, so I will clean it and see what happens.

 

The radio still turns off when full beam is on. Fuel gauge flickers when lights are turned on. So it's all pretty weird. When the radio does occasionally stay on with the lights, the backlight dims. What does that signify? I don't have a multi meter, so it's all very basic looking for problems.

 

Thanks.

[james_pug 26 1 Cars]

For the radio I'd guess Its a bad earth, I don't no were it earths to but without a multimeter you could run a bit of cable straight from the battery negative to the earth wire at the back of the stero and see if it still does it.