Wiring help

Mandy · Apr 18, 2021

Hi I’m changing the indicator lights on my Series 3 diesel and there’s an extra brown wire on the new switch. What should it be attached to?

There’s also an old pre-existing brown wire on the fuse box which isn’t attached to anything. Where does that come from?

Mandy · Apr 18, 2021

This is tge extra wire on the new switch

Mandy · Apr 18, 2021

This is the pre-existing wire not attached to anything

TheMegaMan · Apr 18, 2021

Brown is usually unfused, unswitched 12V. Be careful of that lose wire...it could be connected directly to the battery, which will be bad news if it touches the bodywork. Do you have a multimeter you could use to check whether it's live or not? The end of the insulation looks blackened...is it charred?

Regarding the extra wire on the new indicator switch...really not sure what it's for - feed for headlights, maybe? Your old switch really doesn't have one?

Mandy · Apr 18, 2021

No brown wire or n the old one although I have a suspicion that the dangling brown wire was probably once attached to the old light switch. Looking at the wiring diagram, the brown wire should be fixed to the fuse box. My tester is broken so will get a new one tomorrow and see what voltage I’ve got there. The battery is disconnected so all good for now.

TheMegaMan · Apr 18, 2021

That's quite likely that the wire belongs to the stalk. Would explain a lot. You could also have tested it with a 12v bulb, of course (with the battery temporarily reconnected), but really need to be careful not to short anything. A proper meter is a lot safer...and generally a pretty useful tool.

Mandy · May 11, 2021

Thanks for the advice! I tried with the meter and you were right! I managed to connect everything properly and I now have lights!

Wiring help

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