Interior switches illumination

Scooby33 · Mar 7, 2012

Hi, having recently bought a disco 2 Td5 I am slowly working my way through its problems but am looking for some guidance on this one.

All my interior light switches and instrument panel lights are out and having read the forums and the rave cd it looks to be an earth or fuse problem.

I have checked fuses 11 and 33 and fuse link 13, checked the earth connections on either side in the passenger compartment behind the side facias and behind the right rear lights.
These all seem ok and sound to me and I was wondering if the headers behind the instrument panel are prone to failure?

Also my adjustment for the headlights doesn't work but I think this related to header 0759 so could be part of the same thing?

Any advice please

Scooby33 · Mar 8, 2012

Well I think I have found the problem, 4 of the live wires from header 0759 behind the instrument panel have melted together and bare wires are showing!!

These are the red and red/brown feeds to the headlight adjuster switch and the mirror switch so were probably shorting out.

The thing that worries me is why are they like this and if I replace them will it happen again?

Any comment please

mikes lr · Mar 8, 2012

fit inline fuse if woried

Scooby33 · Mar 9, 2012

Having replaced the burnt out wires today I took your advise and decided to fit an inline fuse holder on the red/orange wire going to the grey multiplug that's connected to the top front right hand side of the fuse box as this wire was burnt right out and broken.

Good job I did because now every time I install a fuse into the holder and turn on the side lights something blows fuse 33 in the fuse box. Could be why the wires were burnt to start with?

So without the fuse fitted I am still no further forward in getting the illumination for the switches working but its back to how it was previously. Grrr

sparky steve · Mar 13, 2012

Scooby33 said:
Having replaced the burnt out wires today I took your advise and decided to fit an inline fuse holder on the red/orange wire going to the grey multiplug that's connected to the top front right hand side of the fuse box as this wire was burnt right out and broken.

Good job I did because now every time I install a fuse into the holder and turn on the side lights something blows fuse 33 in the fuse box. Could be why the wires were burnt to start with?

So without the fuse fitted I am still no further forward in getting the illumination for the switches working but its back to how it was previously. Grrr

well you have a short circuit for sure.

ok easy way to find it is to fit a bulb with two wires, use this across the blown fuse, it will light up, now trace each spur off fuse 33 until you find the problem, the bulb wil go out.

saves on fuses and keeps the system safe while your working on it

Scooby33 · Mar 13, 2012

Ok thanks for the advice I will try and have a look at the weekend but can you just confirm that the bulb needs to be over the new fuse holder or where fuse 33 was if I removed it?

Also if the fuse blows when switching on the side lights, should these be on during the testing.

Thanks

sparky steve · Mar 16, 2012

Scooby33 said:
Ok thanks for the advice I will try and have a look at the weekend but can you just confirm that the bulb needs to be over the new fuse holder or where fuse 33 was if I removed it?

Also if the fuse blows when switching on the side lights, should these be on during the testing.

Thanks

you would be replacing the blown fuse 33 with the bulb.
so with the side lights on the buld will light up bright. this will go dim when you find the short.
fitting an extra inline fuse is not a good idea, find and cure the fault.

places to start looking are:-
cable runs around the RH lights front and rear.
tow bar wiring if you have one. (most likely cause)

the header melting would be a bad connection. these get warm which causes a worse connection so in time becomes very hot and then melts connectors wires etc.

it really seems you could have two or more faults on the system.

how did you repair the header?

Scooby33 · Mar 16, 2012

The fuse was fitted as a precaution so I could remove it if I wanted the wire unjointed again as it was apart under some insulation tape when I went looking for the problem.

The header was undamaged only the wires melted so I removed the metal terminals and replaced the wire back to the headlight levelling and mirror switches and multiplug one at a time so I didn't get them mixed up.

All the joints were soldered and heat shrink tubing put over them afterwards.

One thing that has confused me though is that I found a splice which I assume is by LR on one of the red/orange wires I replaced that had a red/black off take heading back towards the passenger side, but as the cap of the header joins all the live terminals together then surely every wire on the header become live as soon as one wire does so this is prob ok?

Thanks for your help so far

sparky steve · Mar 17, 2012

Scooby33 said:
The fuse was fitted as a precaution so I could remove it if I wanted the wire unjointed again as it was apart under some insulation tape when I went looking for the problem.

The header was undamaged only the wires melted so I removed the metal terminals and replaced the wire back to the headlight levelling and mirror switches and multiplug one at a time so I didn't get them mixed up.

All the joints were soldered and heat shrink tubing put over them afterwards.

One thing that has confused me though is that I found a splice which I assume is by LR on one of the red/orange wires I replaced that had a red/black off take heading back towards the passenger side, but as the cap of the header joins all the live terminals together then surely every wire on the header become live as soon as one wire does so this is prob ok?

Thanks for your help so far

one thing you could try to help track down the short, is to undo the wire repairs, find the input wire (test light, meter) and then connect each wire inturn to the feed, when the fuse pop's you have found the faulty circuit.
so trace where it goes and you'll find and be able to sort the fault.
good luck

Interior switches illumination

Scooby33

New Member

Scooby33

New Member

mikes lr

New Member

Scooby33

New Member

sparky steve

Active Member

Scooby33

New Member

sparky steve

Active Member

Scooby33

New Member

sparky steve

Active Member

Similar threads