P38A High level brake light

cornishboater · May 21, 2019

Just wondering if any one would know where I should look before digging through the wiring. I have a 97 4.6 HSE and have got a high level brake light unit I am fitting (the car didn't have one) I have found the plug that is fitted in the loom but unfortunately no power is there when the brake is depressed. I have read on other posts that this should be plug and play, in my case unfortunately not! Any ideas where to look first?

Cheers

wammers · May 21, 2019

cornishboater said:
Just wondering if any one would know where I should look before digging through the wiring. I have a 97 4.6 HSE and have got a high level brake light unit I am fitting (the car didn't have one) I have found the plug that is fitted in the loom but unfortunately no power is there when the brake is depressed. I have read on other posts that this should be plug and play, in my case unfortunately not! Any ideas where to look first?

Cheers

Wire Green/Blue tracer comes from pin 13 of C325 BECM. Goes to pin 3 of connector C307 then to pin 2 of white connector C865 pin 1 is ground.

JUKE179r · May 21, 2019

In regards to the high level brake light you are installing, is it an LED light?
LED lights tend to disable the cruise control circuit if your P38 has one fitted.

cornishboater · May 21, 2019

JUKE179r said:
In regards to the high level brake light you are installing, is it an LED light?
LED lights tend to disable the cruise control circuit if your P38 has one fitted.

Just the regular unit, decided against LED due to the posts regarding the bulb failure warning.
As for the cruise control, well, there is another project, hasn't worked in the 10 years I have had the rangie despite wandering through all of the information to get it going

cornishboater · May 21, 2019

wammers said:
Wire Green/Blue tracer comes from pin 13 of C325 BECM. Goes to pin 3 of connector C307 then to pin 2 of white connector C865 pin 1 is ground.

Thanks wammers, the C307 is the one in the rear in the headliner is it not?

wammers · May 21, 2019

cornishboater said:
Thanks wammers, the C307 is the one in the rear in the headliner is it not?

Yep 4 pin white connector. Pin 1 Orange/Black. Pin 2 Orange/Purple. Pin 3 Green/Blue. Pin 4 Red/Blue. Pin 3 is power for high level light.

Grrrrrr · May 21, 2019

U

cornishboater said:
Just the regular unit, decided against LED due to the posts regarding the bulb failure warning.
As for the cruise control, well, there is another project, hasn't worked in the 10 years I have had the rangie despite wandering through all of the information to get it going

Usually the vacuum tubing.

cornishboater · May 21, 2019

Grrrrrr said:
U

Usually the vacuum tubing.

I replaced that, they were actually not too bad, have done the various tests so I am thinking the steering wheel kit is at fault, although everything else works on it...

Wazzajnr · May 21, 2019

If it's switched on on the dash and you select cruise, you should hear it click. If not, could well be the buttons.
A while since I drove mine but I thought the CC buttons were on the stalk not the steering wheel?

Datatek · May 22, 2019

Wazzajnr said:
If it's switched on on the dash and you select cruise, you should hear it click. If not, could well be the buttons.
A while since I drove mine but I thought the CC buttons were on the stalk not the steering wheel?

On a P38, the CC buttons are on the wheel on all the ones I've seen.

Wazzajnr · May 22, 2019

Datatek said:
On a P38, the CC buttons are on the wheel on all the ones I've seen.

As I said, it's a while since I drove mine but now I think about it, you're right. I drive so many cars I forget!

Bix · May 22, 2019

cornishboater said:
Just the regular unit, decided against LED due to the posts regarding the bulb failure warning.
As for the cruise control, well, there is another project, hasn't worked in the 10 years I have had the rangie despite wandering through all of the information to get it going

I don't think the 3rd brake light is part of the system to throw bulb warnings. I only had 1 bulb working on mine and never knew because it didn't throw a fault. Unless it requires 100% failure to fault out.

Grrrrrr · May 22, 2019

Datatek said:
On a P38, the CC buttons are on the wheel on all the ones I've seen.

Cruise control button is to far left of the dash. I bought one to use for my parking sensors.

wammers · May 22, 2019

Grrrrrr said:
Cruise control button is to far left of the dash. I bought one to use for my parking sensors.

Master switch as you say on dash, control buttons on steering wheel.

cornishboater · May 23, 2019

Wazzajnr said:
If it's switched on on the dash and you select cruise, you should hear it click. If not, could well be the buttons.
A while since I drove mine but I thought the CC buttons were on the stalk not the steering wheel?

They are on the steering wheel waz, I must see if I can test them somehow

cornishboater · May 23, 2019

An update on the 3rd brake light, after fault checking the connectors/voltage as per Wammers, the fault was in the light connector itself (the white 2 pin) it was missing the brass bit on the live side, odd, since it had never had a 3rd light. spliced in a new connector and hey presto, all is working, should have checked there in the beginning

wammers · May 23, 2019

cornishboater said:
An update on the 3rd brake light, after fault checking the connectors/voltage as per Wammers, the fault was in the light connector itself (the white 2 pin) it was missing the brass bit on the live side, odd, since it had never had a 3rd light. spliced in a new connector and hey presto, all is working, should have checked there in the beginning

Well done good result.

Datatek · May 23, 2019

Bix said:
I don't think the 3rd brake light is part of the system to throw bulb warnings. I only had 1 bulb working on mine and never knew because it didn't throw a fault. Unless it requires 100% failure to fault out.

It doesn't give a bulb failure warning probably due to there being more than one bulb.

al-one-arm · May 23, 2019

same as the rear number plate bulbs. it does not tell you if only one is working.it waits until both have failed, then it tells you.

Wazzajnr · May 23, 2019

cornishboater said:
They are on the steering wheel waz, I must see if I can test them somehow

Yes, that was me being dumb and forgetful!
Nanocom will tell you if the buttons are working but if they are you should hear the relay click on when you try to set cruise control.
There's also a document in the tech archive for testing the vac pump on the CC

P38A High level brake light

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