WIRING!!!!!

[wfothrottle]

 i'm having trouble finding a possible ground problem.

i started off with trying to fix my rear running light........

come to find out that the bulb is fine and i have no power to the running light, but still have brake lights.............

AND.........

i have no power to the license plate or my head lamp parking lights. but the head light still works......

now this is ONLY ON THE DRIVER SIDE. the passenger side works fine........ for now.

i start checking fuses and bulbs and chasing wires........

NOW all of the sudden it SWITCHED SIDES?!?!?!?!(except for the head lamp parking lights. neither of those are working right now)

now everything has power on the driver side, but now the running lights have no power on the passenger side......

i am super cornfuzed????

i'm assuming that there is some king of common ground, but i've been chasing wires for days and can't find the problem?

[Willie_B]

Do you not have 12vdc or ground at the sockets. Makes a big difference. Most lights are grounded thru the socket. So if you have painted or done something else to make it harder for the screws that install the lights you may have a ground issue. There is no common ground other than the whole car and where the battery cable attachs to the shell in the trunk. If you have removed the lights to trouble shoot then they might not work right.

[MPlayle]

Also, those lights are linked front to rear.  Check, clean and re-seat ALL of the bullet connectors for the front lights that are located along the slam-panel.  I had to chase a similar issue once and that was where it turned out to be.

[wfothrottle]

i'm trying to play the follow the wire game, but i get lost every time.....

what i found out so far was that the license plate light is linked through the driver side running lights, and the dash lights are linked to the passenger running lights.

how does the loom get from the front to the back? is it through the head liner?

i'm trying to do this without taring the whole car apart.....

and what is the slam-panel? is it what the striker plate mounts to?

i'm going to dig some more today...

[Willie_B]

The slam panel is the area just above the grille that the hood latch is in.

[wfothrottle]

i did pull apart all of those connectors on the slam panel, chased wires, and found the ones i was looking for. it seemed to be 2 bad connectors.

or so i thought.

everything was working fine, and i put everything back together and did one more check.........NO RUNNING LIGHTS ON EITHER SIDE!!!!!!

i started wiggling wires all around and managed to get the passenger side to come back on..........

so i don't know. i'm giving up for today, and i'll try some more tomorrow.

i'm thinking maybe the fuze block on the firewall may have a bad post or something.......

INTERMITTENT WIRING PROBLEMS S U C K!!!

[94touring]

Those plug connectors sometimes have a mind of their own.  Clean them up really good.  And label as you go.

[Willie_B]

What I used to clean the female connectors is a 22 rifle cleaning brush in a drill to spin it. Just go slowish incase it grabs ahold.

[wfothrottle]

finally i have a day off!!!!!
i found my problem.
it was a stupid fusible link.........

whoever invented to things should be shot.......

ok, maybe that's a little extreme....

(or not)

but for the last few hours i've been probing wires, checking continuity and voltage. checking, checking and re-checking.

i pulled all of those fusible links apart. and they all looked fine, no corrosion or anything so i put them back together and continued on.

well now i know better. i will be checking before and after every connection no matter how good it looks....

[Mudhen]

NICE!  I didn't even know we had those...

Thanks for closing the loop - this won't be one of the thousands of threads on the Internet where there's a lengthy discussion of some issue with no resolution... 4.gif

[wfothrottle]

I'm going to try and post a pic of the culprit

[wfothrottle]

hey, it worked.....
i have a hand full of those stupid things scattered around.

i can tell you that's the first place i'm looking next time i have an intermittent electrical problem....

[MPlayle]

Ah!  The in-line fuses!  I was starting to wonder as most Minis don't have the fusible-link variety.  (Fusible-links usually have to be cut out in order to be replaced.)  Later model Minis do have several of those in-line fuses - usually in a cluster along the firewall about where the rear harness connects to the front harness.