Electrical fault please help.

[BIG D]

Hi,

I have a 1.7 diesel 1990 converted panel van,I seem to have a fault when you put the lights on and use the indicators I seem to get the right hand side indicator sticks on even on the dash the light sticks on,or they flash and bring on the rear light on the opposite side i.e indicator on right flashes and the left hand rear light flashes?? , I have removed the rear loom and re soldered all connections and heat shrinked and put loom back,also when lights are on and i use indicators the rear glow plug relay is ticking on and off with indicators???but only when lights are on,i disconnected the front light and still have fault.

I am going mad I am just about to sell the van but want it all working for the next person,can any one help a stressed out 30 something!!!

Regards Dave

[dominicgg]

Have you tried the crown of earths - cleaning up and reconnecting?

[BIG D]

Hi,

I have just done this after reading and thought that would be it,due to a few dodgy connectios,but still faulty!!!!

Regards Dave

[VWCamperfan]

Depending on your model, there is an earth related connection in the black box to the left of the engine compartment. Might find it there. Remember earth leads are brown too!

[BIG D]

Most of the earths on me van are brown i wll take a look there as well,I am almost out of ideas!!!

Regards Dave

[Sunray]

Hi,

I have a 1.7 diesel 1990 converted panel van,I seem to have a fault when you put the lights on and use the indicators I seem to get the right hand side indicator sticks on even on the dash the light sticks on,or they flash and bring on the rear light on the opposite side i.e indicator on right flashes and the left hand rear light flashes?? , I have removed the rear loom and re soldered all connections and heat shrinked and put loom back,also when lights are on and i use indicators the rear glow plug relay is ticking on and off with indicators???but only when lights are on,i disconnected the front light and still have fault.

I am going mad I am just about to sell the van but want it all working for the next person,can any one help a stressed out 30 something!!!

Regards Dave

With electrical faults like that, you need a decent multi meter, a wire trace tool and to be methodical.

Make sure that the ticker relay is working properly by pulling it out and wiring it up to the battery so you can manually enable the left and right tickers by touching wires. I think the pin out for the relay is in the Haynes manual, though not sure. Can work it out using the multi-meter and some thought.

Disconnect the earth cable from the battery, locate say the glow plug relay earth and see what the resistance is from there to the battery earth, closed circuit should be <100ohm's. If its floating about or saying mega ohms then its open. Somewhere in between its a poor connection.

The wire trace injects a signal into a cable and you can find where it ends up using the sniffer. It does not have to be connected to the wire. Using these tools, you can precisely determine what cable goes where in the loom see if any of them are showing high resistance. Be wary of cheap nasty continuity meters as even moderate resistance can make it beep. 35 quid auto ranging meter/ auto off from maplins with some of those small hook to croc cables will make you life much easier now and in the future.

[BIG D]

Thanks.

I have a decent multi meter use one for work,i will try disconnecting the battery and testing to the glow plug,I am sure that the ticker relay is ok due to it works fine when lights are off,when lights on thats when fault appears, I have cleaned the crowns behind dash,re tagged lighting earth all shiny and new,are they any earths from gearbox to chassis,that could cause this??

Regards Dave

[Mocki]

earth cable on nose of gearbox......

more likely to be poor connection on or behind fuse box.
there is a floating three pin flat connection, two green and one black wire from memory, check its not corroded.


also does it do ti if you either flash the headlights or use the brake lights?

try checking the battery earth lead.

[BIG D]

I will check to see if the fault appears when using brake lights and flash lights, is the flat earth behind fuse box?

Regards Dave

[BIG D]

Hello again,does not seem to do it when using brake lights or front flash,also there dos=ent seem to be 2 greens and a black for the earth behind dash.

Regards Dave

[Mocki]

no, earths are brown..... the flat connector is lighting

[BIG D]

All sorted must have been a bad earth from chassis to right hand rear light .Placed a earth straight from battery to the earth on light is now all working ok.

Thanks for help

Regards Dave