Electrical Fault

[MikeF]

Hi,
im having a bit of trouble with the electrics on my clio.

After I came out of work and it was raining today I pressed the break light and the dash board lit up.

Now everytime I press the brake the dash instrumentation light comes on.

I dont know if it related but I recently changed a brake light bulb - have cheked the enclosure and it all seems dry enough inside.

I have the wiring diagram from my haynes manual - are there any better ones available?

Anyone got any thoughts on a quick fix or am i going to have to get faultfinding with the meter.

thanks

mike

 

[Jay Payne]

are u sure if its the correct bulb? sounds like its back feeding through the sidelight circuit. either that or maybe a bad earth

 

[MikeF]

Thanks for the response

Yeah the bulb is defo the same rating.

When you reffer to a "bad earth" do you mean the +ve is grounding to earth or the -ve is not?

I would have thought when the +ve is grounding to earth you would be blowing fuses - not causing other lights to light up. Car electrics are a black art as far as im concerned.

Any ideas where i can get decent wiring diagrams - i dont relly trust the ones in the Haynes book.

cheers

 

[ditz]

its just a bad earth, what it is.. the rear light clusters have one main earth feeding the whole cluster and a series of lives that power brakes, sides, indicators etc individually.
what happens is if the connection on the back becomes corroded it is usually the main earth that suffers as it needs the best connection.
so what happens is where the cluster has lost its earth, the bulb which you are trying to operate will earth itself through the next nearest bulb through its live (in your case the sidelights as its turning the dash lights on)
basically, clean the connections in both rear light clusters, tweak all pins to make sure they contact properly and it will be fine.

 

[ditz]

but, do double check that you havn't fitted a single fillament bulb to a twin fillament fitting as this would also cause that problem

 

[MikeF]

Hi thanks for the info.

I'll try and get it sorted tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

 

[MikeF]

but, do double check that you havn't fitted a single fillament bulb to a twin fillament fitting as this would also cause that problem

Got it fixed - turned out to be a dodgy bulb - there was a short between both elements..

Changed the bulb - everything now fine.

Thanks for the help.