Electrical Gremlins Strike....

[Bluekermit930]

Hey guys, this is a weird one.

Noticed that my rear wiper was not working today. Then I find that the reversing lights are also not working. Strange thing is that when I select reverse the lights in the rear fog light and heated rear window switches on the dashboard both flash on and off !! There is also a relay type noise from the rear left, possibly under the seat ??

Any clues ?

I checked the fuses, all seemed to be fine ???

Any suggestions welcome....

PAUL

[Greg_S]

check your earth's and your relay's. the guys on the S2 forum will be probably be able to advise you a bit more on this one.

Greg

[GlynRS2]

Agree with Greg.
When you really start to get odd behaviour like that it is frequently an earthing fault

[Bluekermit930]

Thanke, Greg & Glyn.

I agree about the earth problem, I will check them (If I can find them)

I phoned my local specialist who told me it is likely to be broken wires in the top left corner of the tailgate, a common fault aparently. Makes sense, there is no power to the tailgate at all. Will have a ferret about and report back...

By the way, while I was in the fusebox I noticed that there was no fuse in the fuse 5 slot, according to the index its the one for the cooling fan run on....... can you check if this is an RS2 thing or do I have a fuse missing ?




Thanks again

PAUL

[Bluekermit930]

Well, my mechanic was right. The large earth wire had snapped in the grommet between the tailgate and the body, three other wires were dammaged. I think it was caused by the weight of the loom stretching the loom too tight. The loom to the tailgate comes from two multi pin connection blocks (one black & one white) located just above the battery. from there the loom goes to the main rear pillar and up to the top left corner of the roof. From there it splits, most of the wires going through the grommet to the tailgate, a smaller loom going to the boot courtesy light. The problem is that the loom is not supported as it travels up the main pillar and it pulls on the grommet, eventualy snapping the wires. I would recommend putting some duct tape where the loom goes up the pillar, just to take some of the weight......