No lights conundrum
Turbo Mini Forums

I have spent hours trying to work out what the problem is but to no avail.

One day my lights were working fine, the next day nothing.

I have no sidelights, dipped or main beam and no lights at the rear either.
Flashing the headlights DOES work.
Brake lights and indicators all round DO work.
I have a non standard dash so cannot check dash lights.

Before you all say headlight swicth thats absolutly fine too, tested for continuity and also replaced it with a piece of wire to short the terminals, no change.

I have the resistor under the bonnet and the pink relay behind the dash.

Going into the back of the headlight switch is a brown wire which I have 12v coming out of, as soon as I turn the switch to middle or bottom that 12v feed vanishes, this is the same when shorting with a wire.

Fishing around behind the dash I found an inline fuse missing, its actually never been there but is the fuse for the resistor under the bonnet so it would appear my lights were working previously without it, however I have now put a fuse in and there is now 12v coming out of the brown wire going into the pink relay.

I have disconnected the bullets at the front of the car and tested for voltage and there is none. However I get a positive continuity test between the red/green wire and earth.

This leads me to check power to the red/green on the back of the indicator stalk and there is none, however again I get positive continuity between it and earth.

Any ideas?!

http://turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=170151

have you checked the cable joints in the front panel?

yes

Edited by Simon on 2nd Sep, 2011.

http://turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=170151

Could possibly be a faulty relay, best to check with a known working unit if you dont have a spare or dont want to buy one straight off, id also check the functionality of the stalk switch just incase by disconnecting the wiring plug and continuity testing it :)
Also worth testing the fuses rather than just looking at them, ive had fuses before where they have had a hairline crack in and let a reduced voltage through but not enough to really do anything.

Edited by Carlzilla on 2nd Sep, 2011.

i've checked all the fuses with the continuity test but nothing further.

Ignoring the fuses for a second and going back to the wiring in the back of the lighting switch.

The brown wire is giving me +12v on the meter which I assume is correct and is the feed to the switch. I have just tested it with a lightup screwdriver and nothing.

Tested the screwdriver directly on the battery and its fine, so i connected the multimeter up to the brown wire and got a 12v reading, as soon as I touched it with the screwdriver the voltage hits zero. Remove the scredriver and its striaght back to 12v.

I have no idea what this means!

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Have you tried just putting a +ve wire straight from the battery to the back of the switch? Does this make your lights work? Sounds like you have a high resistance supply to me?

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my first port of call would be the fuse box. I've had no end of issues in the past with bad and poor connections due to corrosion

http://turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=170151

corrosion could be in the fuse box - not in the car itself. I've had issues with the back of the fuse box in the past. There is enough connectivity to let the test light work but as soon as you load it up, it looses continuity

I shall partly appologise

There is equally no corrosion anywhere near the fuses or their connections, thats also a new item.

HOWEVER for the need for completeness I took your advice and took the fuse box out to check for corrosion. There was none, apart from the fact that one of the plastic connectors is rather melted on the brown wire going to the left side of the 2nd fuse down, the same brown wire that goes to the lights switch.

I have cleaned off the melted plastic and its working again, however, my concern now is why did it melt and isnt it just going to happen again

Edited by Simon on 2nd Sep, 2011.

http://turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=170151

have you got high powered lights in, could be that? remember there built for sealed beams!

"Cars are a lifetime of pain"

their the wipac quadoptic halogen's

http://turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=170151

I just check around the loom wherever possible looking for something that could have potientially earthed out but not taken the fuse. A faulty bulb may have caused this, ive known blown lightbulbs do all sorts of funny things.