Wiring gremlins - non-dipping wing mirror, various light fail warnings

Morning all,
my car seems to have developed a case of Lecky Gremlins with a few symptoms now appearing.

I intermittently get warnings for tail light fail, number plate light fail, rear fog lamp fail and I assume that it's now time for me to inspect the wiring sub-looms that pass through the booth lid and then into the main body. I was going to do this all at the weekend. Today though a new gremlin has surfaced which makes me wonder if the above listed faults are not actually related to the wiring loom itself but rather fuses / relays. The problem is that when selecting reverse gear, the passenger mirror no longer tilts downwards.

Has anyone else experienced this and is it a fuse / relay issue or wiring loom failure or a combination of all?

Cheers

PS I should add that I have replaced the relevent bulbs but the lights in question are actually not working

Zitat von Murray850;53441

Hi,

Re the dipping mirror in reverse, do check that the mirror adjustment switch is in one or other of the positions i.e. a mirror is selected for adjustment. Without the handbook, I can't remember which it needs to be but just select one mirror with the adjustment switch and then select reverse and if that doesn't get the mirror to dip, select the other mirror and repeat. The dipping passenger mirror function only works with mirror adjustment switch selecting one of the mirrors.

Thanks Murray, that's a good tip. I'll check but I don't think I touched the select button and the mirror was working. Still a good place to start checking tough, cheers

You were right Murray, wing mirror switch was shifted somehow. The mirror does now dip properly so I guess my lighting errors are indeed down to the infamous boot sub-loom problem
Cheers

Zitat von Paul_M;53462

Check the earth wire as the first port of call. It's usually brown, and is shared between several lights, so is the most common culprit when multiple bulb failures occur.

I had similar issues with mine. Would always get number plate light failure when putting the gearstick into reverse. The damaged earth wire was causing the reverse light to seek an alternate ground through the number plate light on the same side! All due to a broken earth in the right side loom passing into the boot.

Thanks Paul, I am planning on attacking the loom issues this weekend, I was suspecting bad earth so it's good to hear that this could be in the right direction

and the winner was....earth wire completely broken on right hand side pass-through sub loom. Now spliced with a new section of wire and heatshrink wrapped. Fare fewer "bongs" in the car now

Seems to happen to all 8s at some point, often it's the brown (earth) wire that causes the trouble ot become obvious as things like reversing lamps seek an alternative earth once that one is broken - that's what then causes the "bong" for failed number plate lamp.

Easy fix once you know where to look for the problem.

Zitat von Noggie;55454

yep... but I just thought I'd share my findings.... and the trouble it caused.
Funny thing was that everything was fine, untill I put the car in reverse.
I have to back the car out of my drive every time so I got the "bong" on startup.... however sometimes I didn't, and now I know why, I had to reverse before the problem appeared.

Hi Noggie, I think that's always a good idea to share, I've learnt loads about the car just by reading about other peoples' experiences.

Cheers