Electrical issue

[Al Shore]

right this is quite a funny one,
i noticed when i brake the lights on my dash came on, along with my brake lights and my sidelights
when i turn the sidelights on, they come on along with the dash lights, and all 3 brake lights,
headlights work just the same with all 3 brake lights showing.
Now I haven't been messing with the electricals at all, I'm much more likely to make the whole lot stop working hehehehe, so I'm thinking a relay might be gone but looking at them I cant tell whether they are in a working order or whether they're blown, not like fuses hehehehe
any ideas guys?

 

[Belly93]

Possibly an earthing problem if all the lights are coming on whe you switch one on

 

[hoopdub]

check all the bulbs and holders

 

[Al Shore]

hehehe, cheers guys, I was wondering if it might be an earth as I've earthed my amps to the brake light earth, I'll change it to somewhere else and see if it helps, if not will go round and check all the bulbs and holders are ok, anything in particular I should check for or just that they're all in good nick, all wires ok etc?

 

[Belly93]

Corrosion on terminals might even be worth checking the plugs at the clusters

 

[hoopdub]

you would be supprised how many faults a bulb can cause if it blows a certain way, a bulb can blow, and still work, but be faulting. especially on more modern cars, man they can cause havoc. just take a look at the contacts of the bulb and holder, and check that the bulb hasnt melted a stem, or looks black inside at its base.

 

[Al Shore]

tight, have swopped every bulb front and rear, seperated the earth's fron rear lights and my stereo, checked all the mounts, no corrosion, melted plactic, deteriorated looks spankin new,
checked all the fuses & relays, again all looking in good working order, checked the 12v & earth for my gauge, well removed, that wasn't casuing it either,
stuck for ideas now guys!going to d/c the middle brake light just so I don't keep getting pulled over on my way home (I work nights in birmingham town centre so always driving past police on the lookout for dodgy cars hehehe)

 

[hoopdub]

start the car, then disconnect the live terminal from the battery, make sure it doesent touch anything then check see if the problem is still there

 

[Al Shore]

start the car, then disconnect the live terminal from the battery, make sure it doesent touch anything then check see if the problem is still there

No luck

 

[hoopdub]

bit tedious but have you tried removing one bulb then checking, do it for every bulb

 

[Al Shore]

yup
Then I tried swopping them all around, then I got fed up an changed them all for brand new ones, inc headlights an sidelights
Is really odd!

 

[hoopdub]

dim dim relay maby fubar, could be so many things though

 

[Al Shore]

lols half tempted to rip the whole lot out an replace with a precoil loom an 1.3 engine w/ecu etc this is frikin weird though, I thought it would be a burnt out fuse or relay initially and that the signal was being sent through a different system to compensate an not leave me with no lights at all, kinda praying it doesnt decide to be light free on the way home tonight, will not be fun getting towed 20mile in the middle of the night

 

[Skinner_87]

Nowt to do with the brakelight switch on the brake pedal assembly itself at all Al?

 

[Al Shore]

hmm will have a gander.....

 

[Al Shore]

tried it with the brake position sensor d/c'd and still all light coming on, checked there was nothing cross-circuiting around the pedal area, not a thing, :S

 

[jacob_ts]

seen this loads before, just replace the brake light bulbs, what happens is that the filament for the brake light blows and touches on the side light filament inside the bulb

 

[Lord Lucan]

seen this loads before, just replace the brake light bulbs, what happens is that the filament for the brake light blows and touches on the side light filament inside the bulb

He replaced them all

 

[Lord Lucan]

Do the lights come on bright or are they slightly dim?? if they are dim then i'd be inclined to say its an earthing problem. if they come on bright then i would be looking around for a short somewhere, possibly around the area where the rear loom block connector is (afaik, down around the drivers footwell kick panel)

Just noticed that this was 3 weeks ago.....surely sorted now

 

[Al Shore]

sorry I forgot to update on the solution, when I originally changed the bulbs, I did it all in one go,
Then I thought I'd try it again with fresh bulbs again but this time replace them one at a time, starting with the driver-side rear top to bottom, and I only had to change the top 2, brake/tail, reverse indicator iirc before it all went back to normal =D, started having some starting issues now so I'm troubleshooting