No Sidelights, Dash light on, sidelights not!

Evening guys.

Had a bit of an odd one with the S1 tonight. I was looking under the bonnet at the gear linkage (long story ), and wanted to turn on the underbonnet light, so opened the passenger door, leaned across and turned the light switch to the first sidelight position. As the door was open, the 'lights on' tone began sounding, for a split second, then the sound petered off and died weakly.

I went round to the front of the car to find the sidelights and underbonnet light were off. Now the interesting thing, if I turn on the ignition and the main headlights, the sidelights come on fine with those, but won't on their own??

The dash indicator does come on even though the lights don't.
I've checked fuse 10, which according to the manual supplies the sidelights, lights on warning, dash and interior lighting etc, but its not blown.

Switch perhaps?

Any ideas?

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on January 23, 2009 01:11 am

Hi Ciaran

Are the sunroof buttons illuminating too? if not this could be a wiring problem around the back of the n/s headlight, give the wiring a wiggle in that area to check.

D

Hi Dean,

I hadn't thought of looking at the sunroof lights actually, but you know the funny thing, I arrived in the work carpark this morning, opened the door and the lights on tone sounded , sidelights working again!

I think you may well be correct with the wiring issue, would explain the intermittency of it.

Now that I think of it, for the past few months the dash indicator for the sidelights sometimes didn't show even though the lights were on...

Strange, and just before MOT too of course

Ciarán

Hi Ciaran

you lose the light indicator on the dash, sunroof switch lights, maybe hydractive switch light but most importantly your tail lights, even though the headlamps are on, so in the dark you think nothings wrong...............untill your rear ended .
I will have a look at mine tomorrow to remind myself what i actualy did and what wire it was

D

No tail lights, nice!
Funny, I did get a 'DEFECTIVE R. TAIL LIGHT ' the other day, thought nothing of it as I'm well used to getting the warning about the stop light (dodgy plug on that cluster). Hmmmmmm

Quite strange those things should all be interrelated, but it definitely sounds like your theory has merit dean, would certainly appreciate it if you do remember what it was on yours / what you did to sort it.

Cheers

Ciarán

I will break out the torch and have a look when i get home tonight then Ciaran
I kind of ignored mine for a couple of weeks until i was coming back from a meal out one night, being followed by a friend who phoned the mrs who was with me to say why do i keep turning my tail lights off and on?

D

Underbonnet light Ciaran? I'm jealous, I've never had an underbonnet light on any of my XMs!

Derek

I have fitted one off a base 2.0i i had but i haven't wired it up yet, just fitted it for the affect Which reminds me.....................................Ciaran where does your underbonnet light plug in????

This post has been edited by dean on January 23, 2009 06:45 pm

Derek, it doesn't have one on the V6?? I'm shocked!

Actually.... I don't think my S2 has one... I don't think I've ever seen an S2 with one come to think of it....

Dean, you know, I've no idea! Its something I've never looked at before, but will certainly check tonight / tomorrow for you

Ciarán

If you could that would be great, no rush though, there are two 2 pin connectors loose under the n/s of my the scuttle trim and i thought it may be one of them, i tried plugging the 2pin underbonnet light connector into both, with ignition and sidelights on and got nothing, i would have thought one of them is for the underbonnet light and the other for heated washer jets?

Cit must have thought V6 owners must be rich and so are not likely to be under the bonnet, let alone in the dark

D

This post has been edited by dean on January 23, 2009 06:56 pm

Hi All

Underbonnet lights were an upmarket series 1 XM fitment only.

John

Interesting, i wonder how a poverty spec xm with rear windows that dont open managed to get one? maybe had a bit of diy upgrading before i got it


D

Ciaran

I have no clue what ive done and without breaking out the ammeter and seeing what does what im not going to be much help.
Attached is the photo of the mod, i know this is the one because its the only repair on the car, although usually i solder and sleeve the wires i may have mislaid the soldering iron for this one i think i will replace this little nasty with another 2 pin plug..............anyway

Basically you are looking for a small connector (2 pin) with one yellow and two black wires going into it, give it a wiggle with the sidelights on, strangely i don't think i could make mine not work by wiggling it, but to make it work you only had to touch anything near it, so it took ages to find.

Hope this is of some help


D

This post has been edited by dean on January 23, 2009 09:08 pm

Hi Dean,

The bonnet light cable comes down the outside of the hinge on the passenger side:



It then plugs into a 2 pin white connector under the scuttle, which you can just about see behind the washer filler pipe in that pic above.

The connector itself:


The wiring to it goes towards the middle of the scuttle and disappears, I'm not sure whether it goes back inside the bulkhead and connects to the sidelight supply in there, or back down the wing to interface with it near the lights. I didn't have time to remove the scuttle today, but if needs be I will when I get a chance (could be some time unfortunately).

Hope that's of some use, sorry if its a bit 'state the obvious'.

In all the excitement I didn't get to check the sidelight connector you told me about, but will do tomorrow. Many thanks for the description and pics, pretty sure what I'm looking for now

Cheers

Ciarán

Brilliant Ciaran, all i really wanted to know was what colour connector it went to, now i can start looking else where for why it doesn't work, don't worry about taking your scuttle off because my god will you curse me if the clips on the side trims break
One last thing, do you have a bonnet catch switch for the bonnet open warning, i haven't and i think it may be wired via that......

Thanks
D

This post has been edited by dean on January 25, 2009 01:19 am