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tail lights and dashboard lights go out


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#1 Roxoff

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Posted 07 January 2006 - 06:02 PM

Our mini seems to have developed an electrical fault. While driving along it suddenly blows fuse 4 (connections 7 and 8 according to the Haynes manual), and the dashboad/speedo/temp/fuel guage back lights go out. This fuse also controls the power to the tail lights, so it's quite an important bit of the car...

I spent an hour with a multimeter on Friday looking at this, and all afternoon today, I cant find a short or any other problem (although I did remove the remains of an old alarm loom - so thats a bit tidier). That doesn't mean there isn't a short, it just means I cant find it.

At the moment I suspect the dip/main beam relay is on its way out. Pulling off the lights switch, I get 12.8v out of the main power line for the lights, but I can also measure 0.3v on the line which runs to the fuse box for the lights from there, which I did not expect.

Can anyone suggest anything else I could look at? Or is the relay the likely culprit here? Any help would be much appreciated. I'm not much of an electrics expert, I'm afraid.

#2 miniboo

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Posted 07 January 2006 - 06:03 PM

Check and clean you earths.

#3 minidaves

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Posted 07 January 2006 - 06:05 PM

comman problems here are

somes caught wire when refitting the tank
someones got a short in headlamp bowl after halgeon converstion
numberplate lamp

dave

#4 Roxoff

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Posted 07 January 2006 - 07:21 PM

Thanks for the quick responses guys, it's much appreciated. Looks like I've got some more investigation to do tomorrow :gimme:

#5 Dev

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Posted 08 January 2006 - 11:09 AM

Had this problem on my old 2000 cooper.

i found it was a problem with the loom rubbing through and shorting on the bulkhead. try a high grade fuse and check the loom.

Dev

#6 Bluemini

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Posted 08 January 2006 - 11:19 AM

I too had this problem, turned out I had put a screw through the loom when fitting a rear arch.

#7 Roxoff

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Posted 09 January 2006 - 10:36 AM

Thanks for all your help everyone. I think I've got it sorted out now, well it's not blown for the last 24 hours.

I checked all the earths to the side lights and tail lights (both on this circuit) and the ones to the front lights (a rather nice set of angel eyes) use push-in connectors which hang right behind the grille, and were looking very, very grotty. So I pulled them apart, cleaned the push-in bit, and sprayed the socket with WD40. Pushed then back.

This was probably the whole fault, but I also found a minor wiring problem with the radio which could have contributed. I'd removed an old alarm loom that ran into the back of the dashboard area, from which I'd taken the main power for the radio - I removed this loom and re-routed the radio's power from the wiring that had been put in place for this very purpose. The switched 12v main power was OK, but I'd connected the memory/permanent supply to the wrong wire. I'd been wondering why the radio kept resetting itself when I turned the ignition off...

Anyway - thanks once again for your help.

#8 Roxoff

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Posted 17 January 2006 - 10:17 PM

Well, it wasn't fixed. It just seemed so - and the electrics worked well at first, but were slowly getting worse and worse again - and for the last few days I was getting through 3 fuses on the journey home from work at 5:30, in the dark!

So I thought about it and realised that I can probly find out where the fault lay by applying some logic. I ruled out the dashboard console, 'because all it could be there would be earthing, and the other lights (indicators, etc. all still work, and they share an earth). So it's a problem with either tail lights or side lights. So, if I disabled one and ran the car, I'd have a good idea where the fault was.

The easy option is to disable the side lights at the front, so I lifted the bonnet (in the dark, this evening) and manoeuvered the ignition shield out the way. As it's coming out, I see sparks from the bodywork by the horn - hmmm, I thought, that looks suspicious...

I pulled the grille off, and looked at the front light wiring, and it's all kinda melted, and it's chafed against the bar that runs down behind the grille. Chafed so badly that it's through the coating over the wires and is shorting out. This is the sort of thing that blows fuses!

So I separate all the wires, cut out the really dodgy bits and rejoin with crimps, and put loads of tape around the melted wires before re-assembling. Next I take it for a run, and waddyaknow - the lights stay on! Now I've got the right size fuse in the fuse 4 (15 amp) and hopefully all will now be well. I'll be able to sleep at night, and I'll be looking forward to driving in the dark again.

#9 miniboo

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Posted 18 January 2006 - 08:48 AM

glad you got it sorted. Its actually qquite a common fault

#10 Teapot

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Posted 18 January 2006 - 09:27 AM

Nice bit of detective work, Roxoff! Huey had a similar problem but it was p*ss*ng and (obviously) dark and I'd forgotten the torch so I just sat and read the manual while I waited for the RAC and by the time he arrived I'd found that the tail, dashboard and side lights came off the same fuse, so it must have blown? Wrong. It was just generally dodgy connections all around the old fusebox. The lights came back on but the wipers stopped working. We finally got it all together and I fled for home.

After that waffle my relevant point is: if you're driving a mini with the same wiring set-up, and it's dark, and the instruments lights go out - even though the headlights dip/main is working - PULL OVER AND STOP because you may have no tail lights and you could be rear-ended, not to mention summonsed :fear:




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