Dashboard gauge/dial lights not working S2

[dontuna]

I have neither green inked bulbs or covers for them. Bulbs as above and all my dials are green. There must be a green lens within each unit

[dontuna]

After all the investigative works and finally identifying it was a fuse the dash lights work. However. Nice new glitch. When I press the brake pedal the dash lights and front lights come on!!!! I'm sure anyone driving in front of me aren't impressed. I didn't change any wiring and this didnt happen before. Only happens when lights are not on. Any ideas before I attack this again?!! Thanks

[LucyP]

Get an auto electrician! It's taken you from 12/07 to 27/07 just to check and change something as simple as a fuse, which even the most incompetent of home bodgers would have looked at first. Auto electrics are clearly not your forte.

[dontuna]

Thanks for the constructive feedback. Very useful. You've clearly read all the post. Obviously I have spent the last two weeks full time trying to fix this error with no success.

[WotnoV8]

Not got the answer but I would look at what has been done since all lights were ok.
1- had your hand up behind the dash to refit bulb- disturbed connections/ wiring somewhere
2- removed redundant immobiliser which was located under steering column/ light switches- again has this disturbed any connections/wiring
3- blown fuse replaced- could the fault have already existed and was the cause of blown fuse?
Sorry it’s not a lot of help but it’s where I would start to look first.

[dontuna]

Thanks WotNoV8. I'll do a full diagnostic check as I imagine it's something simple. Thought I would ask the question to the forum as they tend to have experienced everything before! Cheers

[Adrian@]

You have an earth fault. The quirk/sign is that it changes with other things being used.
Also..IMHO you have solved the topic so perhaps it's better you start another topic.

Sad as it is for you, LucyP is most likely correct, you need to find a man that can, finding a blown fuse is not confidence inspiring esp. on a non metal car as you now have IMHO a simple but serious issue to solve.
A@

Edited by Adrian@ on Friday 28th July 08:51

[Polly Grigora]

dontuna said:

After all the investigative works and finally identifying it was a fuse the dash lights work. However. Nice new glitch. When I press the brake pedal the dash lights and front lights come on!!!! I'm sure anyone driving in front of me aren't impressed. I didn't change any wiring and this didnt happen before. Only happens when lights are not on. Any ideas before I attack this again?!! Thanks

A simple fix will very likely solve the problem

The most common cause of the problem you have is a bad earth at a rear lamp, bad earth will be at the stop light bulb/ stop&tail light bulb

What's happening is that when you operate the brakes the brake light switch is applying a positive voltage to the brake light bulb and that voltage rather than flowing through the bulbs filament to earth is flowing through the bulbs filament and onwards through a tail light bulbs filament and onwards forwards to any circuits at the front of the vehicle that are controlled by the side/tail light switch

The chances are that the bad earth fault at a rear lamp/lamps already existed before you started diagnosing the illumination circuit

Once you solved the problem with the illumination circuit, it is then that the bad earth to the rear lamps would play havoc with side/tail light circuits up front. In fixing the faulty illumination circuit the voltage flowing forwards from the brake light bulb with a bad earth was then able to continue through the illumination lights circuit

[TVR-Stu]

Polly Grigora said:

A simple fix will very likely solve the problem

The most common cause of the problem you have is a bad earth at a rear lamp, bad earth will be at the stop light bulb/ stop&tail light bulb

What's happening is that when you operate the brakes the brake light switch is applying a positive voltage to the brake light bulb and that voltage rather than flowing through the bulbs filament to earth is flowing through the bulbs filament and onwards through a tail light bulbs filament and onwards forwards to any circuits at the front of the vehicle that are controlled by the side/tail light switch

The chances are that the bad earth fault at a rear lamp/lamps already existed before you started diagnosing the illumination circuit

Once you solved the problem with the illumination circuit, it is then that the bad earth to the rear lamps would play havoc with side/tail light circuits up front. In fixing the faulty illumination circuit the voltage flowing forwards from the brake light bulb with a bad earth was then able to continue through the illumination lights circuit

Definitely this would be my thoughts too.

The rear light clusters are a known weak spot (seemingly a Ford speciality!). Remove them and clean every connection that looks crusty and see if that helps things. Dodgy earth's are a nightmare, but potentially an easy fix with a bit of patience.

[dontuna]

Thank you so much. Absolutely spot on. Removed the rear bulb. Cleaned up and reinstalled and all working perfectly. thank you for responding.

[v8s4me]

You'll find a permanent solution to the rear light problem HERE

[Polly Grigora]

dontuna said:

Thank you so much. Absolutely spot on. Removed the rear bulb. Cleaned up and reinstalled and all working perfectly. thank you for responding.

Nice fix, happy motoring

Here's a link to rear lamp plugs should you need them



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253348546632?hash=item3...