24 replies to this topic

[KnightOwl738]

Yeah I hear the fuel pump priming.

Yeah I do have a Haynes manual, will be going through it later...

When the lights were working the flash only worked on the two inner spots.

Attached are the light switches I have.

 

I've also recorded a video of me starting it now... makes a few less noises than before.

 

https://youtu.be/rOsH54qnxxk

 

Thanks for putting up pictures. This may take a while...When you turn the ignition on but don’t try and start the car, do you hear the fuel pump priming at the rear of the car? (It’s inside the petrol tank). If you hear that, that means the power is getting there and the fuel pump relay is working.

That block of fuses behind the air filter is an aftermarket change to replace the standard nest of inline fuses that are usually there. It can be a sensible modification but it means you’re likely going to have to get familiar with the wiring diagram and work out which fuse does what for yourself. Do you have a Haynes manual?

I can see what looks like an additional relay on the left hand side of your engine bay. One looks to be on the factory fit mounting which would be to work 2 standard spots. The other relay will likely be to run the other two lights. It’s possible that relay too could be wired to come on with flash/main beam or as I previously mentioned as front fogs. When working correctly you will hear them click on and off when flashing your headlights.

Did you say whether you had any additional light switches inside the dash? Trying to work out if the additional lights are wired as fogs or spots.

Attached Files

•  Front fog.jpg   35.14K   1 downloads
•  Light switches.jpg   39.02K   2 downloads

Edited by KnightOwl738, 01 January 2020 - 06:05 PM.

[Pops_Guild]

I can’t view the vid at the moment, will look later.

It looks like you do have 2x fog light switches, the one in the main strip should be rear fog (?) and that single one i would think will be for those other two front lamps. If that is the case they would not come on at the same time as the spots.

Usually a factory fitted front fog switch is green not orange.

Both of these switches illuminate when on. Have you seen them illuminate?

If wired correctly the separate spot and fog relays will work together so even if the front fogs are on and you flash or put main beams on as well, the front fog lamps will switch off until the spots are switched off again.

[KnightOwl738]

I turned the ignition on and before the rear fog worked fine and illuminated green. The front one I've never seen lit.

Think my battery is dead so will get that on charge tomorrow.

[Pops_Guild]

watched both vids again. As you say not a lot happening now from the sounds in the 2nd vid, if you've tried starting the car a few times or left switches on, even if you think they're not doing anything, your battery will die quickly so yeah might need charging. Both vids are making me think you may have inadvertently disconnected a wire unrelated to what you were doing to the lamps or you've just got unlucky and something else has decided not to work at the same time...I've been there and done that! Need to eliminate that possibility anyway.

 

Trying think (out loud) through this logically for you. Id make sure all the internal switches are off;

 

Turn ignition on, fuel pump primes (rear of car) and the stepper motor moves into position (clicking from throttle body. It also clicks after you turn the ignition off). I hear the stepper motor in your first vid but not second, another hint that your battery hasn't got enough juice.

 

Turn key further to start up the car, needs the coil and starter motor to have all the right wires connected (and get power)...I'd check all coil and starter wires are on and on well (take pictures), while you're doing that have a look at the condition of the terminals and if needed give them a clean up. Spi Mini's are really fussy about connection quality and earths. Check your earth strap and the 2 electrical earthing points in the engine bay, again making sure all of the metal on the earth points and the connectors are clean and metal on metal. You can find these 2 earth points on brace metal work from the wing into the engine on both sides of the engine bay (it's probably got an official name but I cant remember it). One is on the left near the two yellow relays I was saying work the front spots and fog and the other is just behind the radiator above the purge valve.

 

It does look like you were trying to fix the wrong thing but if its any consolation I also assumed all four spots should come on together when I first bought my mini...hoping my learnings will help you here.

[KnightOwl738]

Thank you so much for your time on this. Really do appreciate it. I'm back at work tomorrow so wont be able to do what you've said until the evening.

 

watched both vids again. As you say not a lot happening now from the sounds in the 2nd vid, if you've tried starting the car a few times or left switches on, even if you think they're not doing anything, your battery will die quickly so yeah might need charging. Both vids are making me think you may have inadvertently disconnected a wire unrelated to what you were doing to the lamps or you've just got unlucky and something else has decided not to work at the same time...I've been there and done that! Need to eliminate that possibility anyway.

 

Trying think (out loud) through this logically for you. Id make sure all the internal switches are off;

 

Turn ignition on, fuel pump primes (rear of car) and the stepper motor moves into position (clicking from throttle body. It also clicks after you turn the ignition off). I hear the stepper motor in your first vid but not second, another hint that your battery hasn't got enough juice.

 

Turn key further to start up the car, needs the coil and starter motor to have all the right wires connected (and get power)...I'd check all coil and starter wires are on and on well (take pictures), while you're doing that have a look at the condition of the terminals and if needed give them a clean up. Spi Mini's are really fussy about connection quality and earths. Check your earth strap and the 2 electrical earthing points in the engine bay, again making sure all of the metal on the earth points and the connectors are clean and metal on metal. You can find these 2 earth points on brace metal work from the wing into the engine on both sides of the engine bay (it's probably got an official name but I cant remember it). One is on the left near the two yellow relays I was saying work the front spots and fog and the other is just behind the radiator above the purge valve.

 

It does look like you were trying to fix the wrong thing but if its any consolation I also assumed all four spots should come on together when I first bought my mini...hoping my learnings will help you here.

 

[KnightOwl738]

This morning before work... replaced the Halfords battery I bought in September and put the original which came with the car back in... put the key in and it fired right up. 

 

So thankful I didn't cause any damage. 

 

 

@Pops_Guild  Thanks again for your help on this. Next steps for me is to understand what each of those blade fuses do.

Edited by KnightOwl738, 02 January 2020 - 09:44 AM.

[Pops_Guild]

Cool! Great to hear. Not sure I did much but glad you’re off and running again! Half of fathoming this sort of stuff out is knowing what should happen in the first place.

Good idea to understand (and write down) what those new fuses do. Also a good idea to go round carefully cleaning up any electrical contacts around the engine. Do them one at a time so you don’t forget what goes where. SPi Minis are prone to electrical gremlins, just an age thing, so if you know all the connections are clean and good if you ever encounter another electrical mystery, at least you know a dodgy connection is less likely.

...you probably ought to have a look at why those front fogs aren’t working ?

[KnightOwl738]

I'll have a look through the forum if someone has visited this topic of front fog lights.... or start a new one on that subject!

 

Thanks again.

[Pops_Guild]

I'll have a look through the forum if someone has visited this topic of front fog lights.... or start a new one on that subject!

 

Thanks again.

 

I've attached one of the last official Rover circuit diagram manuals for you. Its for late 97+ Minis but this is the only one I've ever found that gives any hint of how front spots and fogs should be wired. Mine had them from factory but as mentioned they had been butchered to 'try' and do 4 together, I needed these diags to help me re-instate the 2+2 function. 

 

As your two extras are likely after market I doubt the wire colours will match these (but you might be lucky) but it should give you a guide as to what should be happening. 

 

If you now have the two middle lamps working again, you can swap over the relays to test if you have a busted relay for what looks like the fog / 2x outside lamps. That will eliminate one possible problem.

 

Good Luck!

Attached Files

•  Circuit_20Diagrams.pdf   1.06MB   9 downloads

[KnightOwl738]

Thank you again.