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Brake lights and rear fog lamp on all the time??

Bigbananafeet

Bigbananafeet

Accelerating Away
Any ideas where to begin on this one folks?

I left work to find that both my brake lights and rear foglamp units were lit!! The fog warning lamp on the dash was also lit. Doesn't go out even if I disconnect the fog lamp switch.

I then disconnected each lamp unit in turn but only the actual lamp unit I disconnected would go out. All have been plugged back in again.

Almost the entire dash lights up when I press the brake pedal (ignition off).

When I start the Landy the dash returns to normal but the brake lights and fog lights are still permenantly on.

I drove home with brakes and rear fog lamp lit.

When I turn ignition off the engine keeps running until I remove my foot from the brake pedal.

Landy is currently sitting outside "in disgrace" with the battery disconnected whilst I consult the Haynes manual over a cuppa.

What do you reckon? A short in the loom, bad earth?? Any pointers on where to begin looking?
 
getting a bit of de-ja-vu here, i'm sure i remember a post like this last year.

i think it turned out to be one of the bulbs in the rear tail lamps, either fitted backwards on one side, or the solder contacts on the bulb had shorted between the terminal for the stop lamp and tail lamp, inside the holder
 
I'm afraid it sounds like a short in the rear wiring loom. You can disconnect the rear loom from the main loom at the multiplugs under the bonnet - at which point the fault should disappear, but of course you'll have no rear lights.

You could also try removing the fuse that feeds the permanent live to the rear end - don't know what fuse it will be on a 2000 model (I assume that's the one afflicted). You'll still have brake and fog lights linked, but at least they won't be on all the time.

Once you've narrowed it down, then you can try looking for the fault, but it could be anywhere between front end and the rear offside corner. You may have to pull the loom out of the chassis and untape it to find the problem. Oh yes, worth looking in the rear corner behind the cover panel - there's a rats nest of connections in there and it's possible the fault could be there as well.
 
I don't think it could be the brake light bulbs as I had each one un plugged in turn and the fault reamained. I'll check inside the globes today though...easy stuff first and all that.

The more I thnk about it at and look at the Haynes manual the more think it's a short too. Earth E7 seems to be shared by both the stop light and foglight systems. I wonder if it's now become live??

I'll try and have a look tonight after work but I think it's going to have to wait really untill the weekend. Not looking forward to lying outside working on this in the wet. Bah!
 
There's one earth shared by all the rear end lights. I can't see how it could be live without a) having failed, and only after that, b) having shorted to something permanently live. Anything other than that sequence would have either blown a fuse or melted the wiring.

It's clearly a fairly decent short as it's running the lights (brake and fog between them are about 5A). Keeping the engine running is backfeeding through the brake light switch keeping the ignition switched circuits live.

Whip the panel off in the rear body corner and check in there. Assuming you find nothing untoward, unplug the rear loom under the bonnet. Assuming that at this point the fault is gone then you've pinned it down to the rear loom. If it's still there (fog light tell-tale on, engine keeps running with foot on brake pedal and key off) then it's more serious and you'll be stripping down the dash :eek:
 
Typically it seems to have "fixed" itself. No issues at all ether driving to or from work today. It's going to be pretty difficult finding a short that isn't shorting anymore lol!

I'll still pull some covers off and crawl about tomorrow and have a poke about to see if I see anything. Might go for a bumpy drive to see if I can make it come back too.
 
An update...

Since February my electric gremlin hasn't raised his mischievous head once until yesterday afternoon. I went to start the truck after it had been sitting since about 23:00 on Wed night. Nothing, completely dead. The battery was totally flat.

After jump starting it later on in the evening, the issue with my brake and fog lamps being on had returned and drained the battery it seemed. As it was getting late I decided to pull each fuse one by one and check them to see if I could get a hint while the fault was still there. Upon pulling the second fuse under my seat, marked "Horn", the brake and fogs lamps went off, as did the fog lamp tell-tale. Strangely though the horn was still operating though so I'm not actually sure what that fuse is really for?? Needs some more investigation.

Anyway, this morning I followed the loom from the fuse box out the seat box and across the top of the gearbox (next to the 7 core trailer cable I fitted earlier to replace the broken section of loom between the ECU and the throttle) and then up into the engine bay and in through the bulkhead where I gave in and lost it.... Unplugging the loom here made the lights go out so therefore fault lies further on.

I located the plugs connecting the loom as it comes back out of the engine bay and disappears up the drivers side chassis leg to the rear of the truck. Unplugging 2 of the plugs here also made the lights drop out. I gave the loom/convoluted tubing a right good shake as it enters the chassis but no joy the lights stay on. I got the back of the truck and found where the loom exits the chassis and disappears up behind the plastic panel behind the lights and enter the truck through the wheel box into the rear body corner panel. I gave the loom a shake here and the lights flickered off, then on, then off again and oh sh*t then it started smoking :eek:

I quickly whipped that fuse out again and disconnected the battery but at least I'd pinpointed the fault! Getting behind the plastic cover and removing some of the loom tape then revealed this!

DSC_0356.JPGDSC_0359.JPG

A few hours with the snips, crimpers, the soldering iron and a real of cable borrowed from work and it looked like this...

DSC_0361.JPG...before I taped it up again.

The truck's rear lights are all now in decent working order again and I can now stop worrying about when the "gremlin" might be coming back...at least for a while longer now.

Thanks for your posts Simon, they came in very handy albeit a few months later!

Bigbananafeet
 
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