dash power issues

Hi all. I seem to be having a problem with what I suspect is a bad earth. My dash lights stay off till the car is warm then come on. Not a problem normally but it's knocking out my rear lights. I think it's an earth problem on my sidelights. Can anybody shed any light on the problem at all. It's a discovery td5 1999


Cheers Davy


Sent from Samsung Mobile on O2

Ok, with the no reply I hashed on and figured this much out. Fuse no' 33 in the drivers foot well had no power either side of it. I figure this is coming from the light stalk itself. Checked FL12 under the bonnet it has power. Checked the light stalk connection next at the steering column. It has power on the heaviest wire which I took as the main feed from FL12. Next I took a temporary feed from a same rated fuse in the fuse box to F33. This brought on my side lights. I checked to see which wire at the column went live and took a temp supply to there with a rocker switch in line to allow me to put my sidelights on and off till a new stalk arrives. I haven't checked any wiring schematics though but it worked for me

Hi, i'm always up to help when it's about electrics but not if the description is so ambigous like your first post... you mixed dash lights with rear lights then involved side lights earth... you need to be much more exact in description also for such kind of troubleshooting you need the diagrams otherwise it's a complete bodge... the wire from FL12 to stalk is brown/green and not the heaviest cos the heaviest is for headlamps(brown/purple) which comes from FL10...so the contact for F33 in the stalk is between the brown/green and red wire, if you dont get feed through the stalk on this circuit it's certrain that the stalk is gone but if you do and still no feed to F33 it's some other problem most likely within the fusebox

Hello Sierra, the dash lights didnt concern me till I noticed my back lights were out as well as the front side lights. Bodge or no bodge , with the absence of wiring diagrams, a new stalk and a 3 hour drive in the dark I needed a fix. The fault had went from being a nuisance to being a problem in the space of an afternoon. The fix I implemented, right or wrong got me out of a hole. Everything is protected by fuses of the right rating and a new stalk is on its way. As for ambiguity, surely a " we need to clarify what you actually need" type answer would've addressed any short comings in the post in the first place. Either way I have side lights and will have a new stalk ahortly so all is good. Thank you for your input as well. As always your help is appreciated