4 replies to this topic

[pusb]

Not really driving the Mini at the moment obviously, but had to move it out of the garage yesterday whilst having a clearout.

 

When reversing back in I noticed my reverse lights weren't on. Checked the fuse and it had blown, replaced it and they were working again.

 

Went to move the Mini today, and noticed that the reverse lights had stopped working again. Checked the fuse but this time it was fine.

 

Checked the wiring in the boot the best I could and it all looked ok.

 

Checked the bulbs, both had quite a bit of corrosion on them so cleaned them up. The bulb holders also had corrosion, so cleaned them but its hard to get right inside them. The passenger side bulbholder seems to have lost its springiness, but the drivers side one was fine.

 

I think that the passenger side one is making a poor connection with the bulb, but the other side is fine. So am I right in thinking that even if the one side wasn't making a good connection, the other side should still light up? (Basically asking is it wired in series or parallel?   

 

Or, is all that a red herring and is the switch the most likely culprit? 

[cal844]

Check the switch wiring isn't touching the exhaust, had that on my 1275 with a 2.25 inch link pipe. It earthed and blew the top fuse so no indicators either

[Algordo1100]

Check the switch wiring isn't touching the exhaust, had that on my 1275 with a 2.25 inch link pipe. It earthed and blew the top fuse so no indicators either

Same.
Also, a previous owner of my equinox must have had a similar problem, except their solution was to cut the reverse light wire underneath and do without reverse lights.?

Soon rewired that.

[cal844]

Check the switch wiring isn't touching the exhaust, had that on my 1275 with a 2.25 inch link pipe. It earthed and blew the top fuse so no indicators either

Same.
Also, a previous owner of my equinox must have had a similar problem, except their solution was to cut the reverse light wire underneath and do without reverse lights.?

Soon rewired that.

Reverse lights can be done away with, I have a rally type reverse light on a separate switch, that was already on the car when I bought it.

[[email protected]]

Is it just the reverse lights?

 

I had an incident once where I lost turn signal indicators/blinkers, reverse and brake lights together

 

Turned out that the connections on the back of the 4-fuse box had oxidized in between the rivets and the spades:

 

 2020_04_19_18_02_52_RTC440A_Mini_genuine_minispares_4_fuse_fuse_box.jpg   36.4K   0 downloads

 

I recommend taking a photo of the wiring schema (just in case someone before you moved things around) and then unplugging the wires from the fuse box, unscrewing it from the firewall and inspecting the back and then ohm'ing out all the connections left-to-right (with the fuses in place of course!) to ensure that current can flow through.

 

Also check the reverse switch under the car as it does sit close to the exhaust and it or its wiring might have fried.

 

Another time I lost headlights and found that by simply unplugging the connectors and spraying in some WD-40 to the little black plastic connector cover housings and plugging back in again, all was restored, so I recommend doing the same before plugging everything back in.  (I knew something was up when a bit of white powder fell out of the black connector housing - a sure sign of more corrosion!)

 

Good luck!