Faulty driving lamp, brake light, etc...

Enfield

Enfield

Enfield

Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2003
Posts
7,409
Location
UK
Hi!

I know jack about electrics so i'm investing in your help! I'm armed and ready with a multimeter, but i'll be ****** if I know how to use it! :p

Anyway, onwards with the problem.

First up. The offside driving lamp will not work. The contacts on the lamp itself aren't rusted up like the previous 205 so it's all good down there. I've managed to get a reading with the multimeter from the light and it reads 0.1v - not good right? What do I check next? By the way...the other lamp works fine but is only reading 10v when it should be 12v but I put that down to it being French!

Second. The offside brake light, same side as the driving lamp, (just pointing that out, not trying to be patronising). I've tried a new bulb and cleaned the contacts but still no worky.

Third. The reverse lamp doesn't work. Haven't had time to check the bulb yet but I suspect it's related to the previous two problems! :(


Battery has a reading of just over 13 volts, and a reading of just over 14v with the engine running.

Any advice greatly appreciated!! :)
 
Ok i can let you know about the battery, when under a load ie turning the car over/running the electrics the voltage will dip. When sat with the car turned off, it will be ~12V, then obviously when the car is running it will be higher due to it being charged :)
 
Firstly have you checked the fuses, if you’ve got a Haynes manual then use that to find which fuse(s) you should be looking at as it’s normally much more informative than the cars manual.

Secondly, you say you don’t know how to use a multi-meter, how did you manage to get those voltage readings?
 
Checked the fuses yep, they're fine.

I only know how to use one setting on the meter, I did managed to blow the fuse for my driving lamps, replaced it though and it's back to how it was.
 
If the fuses are fine it's probably a bad earth somewhere, if you have got the wiring diagrams for you car you should be able to check if all the affected lights share a common earth, then it's just a case of finding it and giving it a good clean.
 
I can get 12v from both lamps now but only one works still. :(

If I disconnect the earth from the lamp unit and stick my multimeter on the connections on the cables it reads 12v as it should but as soon as I plug the earth cable onto the lamp again the volts drop to nothing. Why is this???

I've swapped over the lamp units so the one that wasn't working is on the other side and it works fine there, so it's defintely not the bulb or the unit.

Help! :(
 
Live to live and earth to earth. If I hadn't been using the negative bit on the multimeter probably I wouldn't have been getting a reading...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom