Auto Electricians
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How much does the usual auto electrician charge for call outs? Anyone know the average hourly rates?

Cheers

Steady mate ....... that could bankrupt you!!!

Surely there is somebody on here who could help and is fairly close?!?!?!?!

Which one of the two locations do you have the car at?

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

Cars in portsmouth at home at the mo. Ive tried everything to my wiring skills which isnt very good and I just cant seem to get it all working!

Made a thread on TMF which some people have helped with:

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/index...showtopic=58349

Need to get the car MOT'd before the end of the week when I go back to uni, and im just losing the battle with the wiring which is wasting my time!

Was just curious how much the electricians charge hourly, just want to get it sorted but afterall its silly to pay silly money

Hi,
I'm an auto sparks by trade, bit too far away though :(
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Cars in portsmouth at home at the mo. Ive tried everything to my wiring skills which isnt very good and I just cant seem to get it all working!

Made a thread on TMF which some people have helped with:

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/index...showtopic=58349

Need to get the car MOT'd before the end of the week when I go back to uni, and im just losing the battle with the wiring which is wasting my time!

Was just curious how much the electricians charge hourly, just want to get it sorted but afterall its silly to pay silly money

Not sure how I managed the double post!

Gavin, could you give me some pointers on the problem then if you dont mind? It'd be much appreciated! Just dont know where to look! ppl always say earths and connections and ive double checked all connections related, and followed the earths to all the items im having trouble with and checked and checked again im just lost

How much do you charge an hour then Gavin, just so I can get an idea of the price

Edited by richminiturbo. on 16th Sep, 2007.

Hi,
Have you got a big clump of bullet connectors by the bonnet catch?
If so start there for lights, indicators we'll come back to later.....
Get a test light, and check power to and from all fuses. Brown and purple wires for the horn. Light greens for the wipers.
EDIT: I'll do it for you at a good price if you're transporting me
Cheers,
Gavin :)

Edited by Bat on 16th Sep, 2007.

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Hi,
Secure doesn't neccesarily mean you're getting a good connection....
Testing either side with a volt meter with the lights on would
How many fuses in the fuse box?
Brown wires are always live.
Greens are igntion fed.
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Awsome learning already lol! 4 fuse block , 4 inline fuses on bulkhead but the i thought there should be inlines behind the dash, but the previous owner did away with them and used bullets!

Just curious, but any idea what these things are? The box says wiper control, but I cant find it in any of the diagrams!


There is also this rogue connector coming off the look right next to the "Wiper Control" box which doesnt seem to have a local home, dont know what its for either!

Just a thought, what's the connections like at the plugs hanging under the steering collumn? Most of the things that you are having problems with run through these plugs (except the hazzards). I had a bad connection in my headlights that was traced to there.

Connections are ok at the plugs under the steering column! I have the lights working now, seemed to be a sketchy earth connection at the bullet to the headlights.

Got a multimeter on the wire for the horn, but the readings show that its an open circuit, even with the horn down! Tested with a multimeter at the fuse box for the horn and again, nothing! Tested at the horn switch itself and again got nothing! So this shows that the horn switch is fubar'd right? Though when I first got the car I plugged in a different column to see if that would help with the horn and had no luck, I will try again later though!

So now I have the headlights working I feel a bit better about it, just need the indicators working now (right indication works fine but when indicating left the lights and repeaters stay solid). Aswell as the wipers!

the horn has current to it at all times, the horn button only grounds the horn. I dont know if that helps, but thought I should mention it.

Yeah so I should get a reading at the horn terminal on the stalk and the end of the horn wire when the horn is pushed down? As like you said when the horn is pushed it earths, completes the circuit and the horn gets power! But when I push the horn down I get no power reading from the terminal or at the end of the wire, meaning its not earthed, meaning that the switch is screwed? Am I getting it right?

the way I have done it just to take the two wires going to the horn, check that one of them has live feed, and that the other has infinite resistance against a known good ground when the button it not pushed in, and that it has 0 resistance agains the same point when the button is pushed in... Thats an idiot proof way of doing it at least.

Yeah I checked for a live feed on the purple/black wire and got nothing! Both when the swith for the horn is on or off!

if you dont get 12V there at all times at least while key is turned to ign. there is something wrong, check connection to fuse/battery. As I said you should get live there at ALL times, the horn button only grounds the horn.

Regards the horn problem, what year is the car and how many fuses do you have under the bonnet?

Its 1990 with 4 fuses in the box!

I dont get a live feed across the horn fuse at all times, looking at the haynes the headlight flash runs through the same fuse, but that works! So i dunno whats going on lol

Right here goes, bear with me!

Those 4 way fuse boxes are renowned for dodgy connections both on the fuse connections and the spade terminals. The female spade on the wire can also rot away and give you a bad connection so I would give these a good look over first. They can look fine on the outside but be rotten as hell inside the plastic shroud.
Tracing electrical faults is usually best done by testing along the wire starting from it's supply end and then measuring at every intermediate join, fuse, switch etc. Try measuring the voltage on the brown wire at the fuse box with respect to a good earth point, it should be 12v. Try giving that circuit some electrical load by using the headlamp flasher (it pulls the most amps on that circuit) and test again while the headlamps are on, it will drop slightly but shouldn't be too much. Then try the same on the purple wire, if you get a bigger volt drop when you put the lights on there is a dodgy connection around the fuse box somewhere. If that seems ok follow the purple wire further, you will find it next on the multiplug on the back of the horn stalk controls, again you should see 12v. The next point to check is the purple wire with the black stripe, this is the switched 12v output from the horn button, you should get 12v here when the horn button is pressed and 0v when released. If not try disconnecting the purple / black wire at horn and try again.
The horn only has 1 wire on a 1990 car, the other side is earthed to the body so you should only see 12v at the horn when the button is pressed. Try that lot and let me know how you get on.

BTW: the Lucas 6DA is an intermittent wiper control unit, commonly found on early Metro's iirc, it just plugs in between the wire loom and the stalk controls usually at the multiplug connector under the dash.

regards

Neil

Edited by neilj1678 on 17th Sep, 2007.

Hi,
Never seen a 6DA on a mini, so bin it and put the 2 plugs together as they should be.
The spare plug looks like it maybe for the hazzard flasher unit, what colours are the wires?
As far as the horn goes, on the column multiplug there should be a purple and black wire, this should go live when you press the horn.
If not check for a purple wire in the same plug, this should always be live.
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Thats brilliant neil thank you!! Got in a bit late tonight so dont have any light to go and test them! Will do first thing tomorrow though.

At least I know what the wiper control box is, hopefully thats not causing any problems!

Thanks so much for everyones help so far, really appreciate it!

Rich

The spare connector looks to be related to the 6DA, it's got the same colour wires as the connector on the upper right of the 6DA in your first pic. Might be meant to connect to a dash mounted control so you can vary the intermittent time but not sure. You can always remove the 6DA as already stated and simply reconnect the two loom connectors back togther