31 replies to this topic

[KernowCooper]

Have you a workshop manual? follow the circuit into and out of the horn circuit and check for 12v at all stages into the stalk and out.

[stevelane]

I have a manual but I do struggle with wiring diagrams. Will go back to it though and see what I can fathom

[Bungle]

Erm........live

 

power on battery connected

[stevelane]

Erm........live

 
power on battery connected

Yes it was, but the hazards and indicators are fine now, just gotta brush up on my electrical skills to work out the multimeter and trace the horn and headlight issues

[tiger99]

This "should" be simple, and if I had been here earlier I would have strongly suggested finding a purple wire and checking that it has 12V on it. OK, I will still suggest that, as no-one else has, so far....

 

The purple circuit feeds the horn, headlight flasher, and possibly a few other items, depending on model, which need to be usable with the ignition off. The purple comes from the brown permanently live circuit via a fuse, so with that information you will know which fuse to double check.

 

Depending on model, the purple circuit may diverge in several directions from multiple lugs on the fuse terminal, or somehere else. But it should be live everywhere that you can find it, which includes the hazard flasher and headlight flasher switches, and the horn switch or relay (the horn circuit varied by model/year).

 

If you do find battery voltage on the purple, check that full voltage remains when you try the flasher etc, because a high resistance somewhere will still allow very close to full battery voltage to be detected by the multimeter, until a load is applied.

[stevelane]

This "should" be simple, and if I had been here earlier I would have strongly suggested finding a purple wire and checking that it has 12V on it. OK, I will still suggest that, as no-one else has, so far....
 
The purple circuit feeds the horn, headlight flasher, and possibly a few other items, depending on model, which need to be usable with the ignition off. The purple comes from the brown permanently live circuit via a fuse, so with that information you will know which fuse to double check.
 
Depending on model, the purple circuit may diverge in several directions from multiple lugs on the fuse terminal, or somehere else. But it should be live everywhere that you can find it, which includes the hazard flasher and headlight flasher switches, and the horn switch or relay (the horn circuit varied by model/year).
 
If you do find battery voltage on the purple, check that full voltage remains when you try the flasher etc, because a high resistance somewhere will still allow very close to full battery voltage to be detected by the multimeter, until a load is applied.

thank you for such a comprehensive answer and I will check this out tonight. I am a complete amatuer to this so excuse my questions but to check voltage I place the multimeter on volts, put the black lead on an earth and find a spot on the purple wire to touch the red lead, I should then find voltage when I press the horn? Is this correct?

The headlight flasher has never worked ever since I had the car so I can't do this

The only places I can see the purple wire is directly out of the stalk, at the fuse box and then at the horn itself

[stevelane]

Is it odd that I've gone to try and do the above and the battery is completely dead??

I know I've been trying to sort this out but I would've thought the battery would have died slowly and not just a sudden death!

[stevelane]

So the strangest thing just happened.

Had the battery on quick charge for one hour until it said full

Reattached the battery and the headlights came on! Checked the horn, working, checked the brake pressure warning, working!

The only wire I have touched tonight was the brown live feed to the fuse box so I'm guessing there was a problem there after all! So half my problems are over through fluke rather than knowledge!

All I'm missing now is brake lights.

[stevelane]

So I now have everything other than tail and brake lights, the whole problem seems to be corroded connections as it's stood for a while do that's the first place I will look

Are the connectors for the rear clusters underneath the boot liner or inside the car?

[stevelane]

Well with a little bit of a clean up I now have all the electrics back up and running

Just the dash to go in and then off to the mot centre

Thanks for everyone's help

[Captain Mainwaring]

I have a feeling that you aren't quite finished yet.

[stevelane]

I have a feeling that you aren't quite finished yet.

what makes you say that?

[Captain Mainwaring]

 

I have a feeling that you aren't quite finished yet.

what makes you say that?

 

 

Read your posts - too many mysteries, battery going flat in a few minutes, then a quick charge and everything works again.

 

The worst sort of fault on ELV electricals are intermittant faults, you can expect them to reappear at some point.

[stevelane]

 

I have a feeling that you aren't quite finished yet.

what makes you say that?
 

 
Read your posts - too many mysteries, battery going flat in a few minutes, then a quick charge and everything works again.
 
The worst sort of fault on ELV electricals are intermittant faults, you can expect them to reappear at some point.

Ah sorry, thought I had done something wrong lol

It's not really a mystery, I had just kept to a few bare facts

The battery had been drained because I had left the headlights on, no headlights but the switch was still draining power hence the charge.

Before I had realised that the battery was flat I had taken the live feed on/off a few times and I believe this cleaned up the connection making it work

I may be overly optimistic but I'm really hoping you are wrong when you say it's coming back

;)

[Captain Mainwaring]

 

 

 

I have a feeling that you aren't quite finished yet.

what makes you say that?
 

 
Read your posts - too many mysteries, battery going flat in a few minutes, then a quick charge and everything works again.
 
The worst sort of fault on ELV electricals are intermittant faults, you can expect them to reappear at some point.

Ah sorry, thought I had done something wrong lol

It's not really a mystery, I had just kept to a few bare facts

The battery had been drained because I had left the headlights on, no headlights but the switch was still draining power hence the charge.

Before I had realised that the battery was flat I had taken the live feed on/off a few times and I believe this cleaned up the connection making it work

I may be overly optimistic but I'm really hoping you are wrong when you say it's coming back

;)

 

 

 

Sorry, not having a dig, but the worse thing with low voltage faults is not finding them and having the problem disappear, it will certainly reappear again.

 

Hopefully they won't, but be prepared that they will.