Electrical gremlin?

Just about to check over the Td4 I bought in Wales on Friday....

Immediately I have noticed that the dash lights and front left light side light come on when the brake pedal is pushed, and the rear brake light above the spare tyre comes on with the side light switch??

As it has twin electrics wired in I'm guessing there is a wiring cock-up on the sockets at the tow-bar.

anyone else had this one?

Just unplug the tow wiring from the main loom and see what happens.

Yep, thanks mate, that was my first thought.

I hate electrics on cars....

One of these


DD

Just had a look at the 'spaghetti' of wires at the back and couldn't make sense of anything.
The brake light at the spare wheel works as a brake light when the headlights are off, but as an extra rear light when the headlights are on?

No obvious plugs/connections to play with....?

I'll stick to the greasy jobs and get a car sparky to check it over.

Sounds very much like a bad earth, probably on the rear light clusters.

Check all the brake and tail light bulbs. It is possible for a caveman to force the wrong kind of bulb into the holders, ie a twin filament stop and tail bulb into a single tail or brake light or vice-versa. This gives all sorts of confusion between brake and lighting circuits.

Had this on a couple of cars now.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

on my old freelander i wire in extra double socket in the 2 tops one so I had 4 side lights but never thought of the high brake light now that give me a idea

I'd go with daves suggestion! Wrong bulb will short brakes and sidelight circuits together!!!


DD

plug is in rear quarter. One each side