Ughh - I hate electrics - nothing is ever simple!

So you may recall (prob not!) I bought an 18w LED work light (ebay job) a few weeks back - well after a brief discussion about not needing a relay, extra fuse box etc - I decided to wire it off the heated screen as I'm not fussed about it.

Long story short, that feed is live at the switch but dead at the fuse box and rear of the 90.

So I thought I'd wire it in to the rear wiper motor, but of the 3 positive cables that feed it, none are at 0v with the ignition on, and the switch off.

I tried them all, and only one comes close - is bright when the motor switch is turned on, but very dim when it is back in the off position!

Of the remaining two, one is constant low volts and the other is constant (with ignition on) high.

So I'm a bit puzzled at the moment, and tempted to run new wires, but surley I'm missing an easy fix to utilising these existing feeds?

Any help mush appreciated!

Cheers
Tom


EDIT: on the plus side the light is very bright, and seemingly great value!

Don,t know how it can be live at the switch but dead at the fuse,but leave the wiper alone. just run a line from dash up screen pillar and to the rear.

+1 leave the rear wiper switch, I temporarily connected front wash to the rear wash switch (column switch was knackered) and it caused all sorts of grief to the electrics!

Hi chaps.
Thanks for your comments - I'm not having the best of luck with electrical items this week. HTC one died Monday, landy CD player died (even opened it right up to look for dry joint) and now the fun with this... at least I replaced my reversing light unit tonight without any hiccups!

So I've taken your collective advice and left the wiper wires alone!

So moving on should I just run a new wire from the battery through a fuse under the seat, onto a switch on the dash and to the light at the back?
As it's only 18w should I just earth locally to the body - I tested it this way and it worked nicely...?

Thanks
Tom

Yes, that'll work.

The 'odd' wire that you found on the wiper should work though. It's the permanent supply for the self-parking. (That's why it shows odd readings when it's working the wiper).

(Plain green iirc).

What I did with mine was use the permanent feed wire next to the osr lamps, purple I think, then just triggered a relay from a switch on the dash.

boguing said:

Yes, that'll work.

The 'odd' wire that you found on the wiper should work though. It's the permanent supply for the self-parking. (That's why it shows odd readings when it's working the wiper).

(Plain green iirc).

Click to expand...

I have been convinced I should run new wires and do it 'properly', but out of interest, how did you stop the permanent live from supplying some power to the light when you didn't want it?

I tested all three positives, and even with the ignition off, the most suitable still gave the LED's a very gentle glow? I didn't put the multimeter on it, but it couldn't of been much at all...

Cheers
Tom

lynall said:

What I did with mine was use the permanent feed wire next to the osr lamps, purple I think, then just triggered a relay from a switch on the dash.

Click to expand...

I have to admit relays confuse me, and i'll do my best to just avoid them if I can with just 18w.

Tom

EDIT: I found this thread which is very helpful - http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f38/tutorial-car-electrics-245168.html