I've been meaning to fit a flashing led to a vehicle (non PSA) for a while now. I thought I'd have another go this afternoon.
For those who know, you require a permanent 12v feed and an ignition (accessory ideally) feed too. I thought about the dash lighting switch but to my horror found the plug is part of the dash itself, it would take a lot of surgery to get at the wiring.
Next thought, the radio was bound to have feeds. After removing the ashtray to fit the led in the sidepanel, then the oddments tray up the dash and finally the radio itself, a bit of a struggle with its cage (plus excess short wiring to make life more fun, talk about working through a letterbox) I had the plug available.
I fitted the led and tested it, all good. Tidying the wiring was very difficult as the loom is tightly fixed to the back of the dash, to cut a long story shorter I had to whip the glove-box inner out (more screws) to see what I was doing and tidy the wiring a bit. the dash loom runs underneath the radio area and is very well fixed in its own conduit it seems.
Best bit coming. Retested led, all working. Put radio / glove-box / ashtray* (which fell apart, much fun trying to refit a spring and a curious plastic 'helper' piece, I'm not convinced its right now) , one radio code later we were done.
Upon removing the key the multifunction display illumination (and its display itself) flashed on alternatively with the led
, also the lights on warning buzzer beeped in time with the led when the door was open, even with the lights off.I should of really used the hazard light feed but that was impossible to get the plug out of the dash too as that was higher up. The radio seemed the half sensible option.
I sort of expected this given I *think* its semi multiplexed.
Removed radio *sigh* and it behaved. Trouble was there's only one 'ignition' feed there so I could not of used the wrong one, I carefully checked with a meter on the pins first, unless the radio is interfering as it does not have a display of its own it uses the car multifunction unit. As I could not quickly get at the wiring (again!) at the radio plugs given its cage / tight-fitting etc, plus I'd have to whiz the glove-box out to get the wiring to sit back neatly, I chopped one of the led feeds at the led itself and insulated it up, although its in a piece of plastic and cannot really move anywhere. Job for the weekend I suppose.
The radio was providing some kind of backfeed as there's some extra feature whereby it will stay on until the key is removed, even out of accessory position (this is normal) once its been powered up.
Moral of the story: Although you've taken care and checked everything. Always check it again when everything is back together and plugged in. Although I've never had this happen before, I'd rather whip the dash out and back again on a 406 at least I know how to do that.
