Xantia - Reverse / Rear Fog light issue

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angle
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Xantia - Reverse / Rear Fog light issue

Post by angle »

Sorry, me again. MOT on my S1 Xantia hatchback is next week, so thought it was sensible to do a quick bulb test. All good - apart from the fact that the rear fog light switch isn't switching the rear fog light on - its putting the reverse lights on instead. Which explains why putting the car in reverse was putting the fog lamp warning light on the dash on, I suppose.

Now, a disclaimer - I know nothing about electrics. Especially electrics on French cars, and particularly electrics on French cars that even to my untrained eye appear to have been chopped about to fit a towbar. As such, this is much more in hope than expectation and I'm half wondering whether its worth travelling the 30 miles or so to the MOT centre that I'm going to assume have passed it in this state before.

So - connector that both fog and reverse lights use to go into the OS rear light cluster (the yellow one) seems OK. One of the wires coming from it had some chunks taken out of the insulation, but freshly wrapped in tape and its still doing it, so assuming its all good at that end. Where the wires enter into the top of the tailgate, the sheath they run in is a bit mashed and has a split in it, but the wires seem to be in good condition - again, just on a visual check though. The only other thing I can get to easily in the rain without too much dismantling of trim is what I'm guessing is the earth - based on the Haynes manual wiring diagrams suggesting they share earth M006 with the tail lights in the rear wing, I'm assuming its the one behind the OS rear light in the wing, bolted into the bodywork. Again, having unbolted it and put it back together again the earth looks OK, although some of the wiring going into it looks decidedly amateur (different colours at different ends, wires soldered together and wrapped in peeling electrical tape...) Is there anything else I could be checking, cleaning or swearing at before I give up and go to an auto electrician and/or set it on fire?

Thank you as always.
citronut
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Re: Xantia - Reverse / Rear Fog light issue

Post by citronut »

does or has it ever had a tow bar,

if it has the first thing i would do is disconnect tow bar wiring, and try to repair/remake the original wiring,

the main thing required here for the MOT is the O/S rear fog, as the N/S fog and both/either reversing lamps are not required for a UK mot

i would test from the best points of the original loom/ribbon cables and work back towards the light clusters
Regards, malcolm.

current ride a BX 1.7 TZD estate
1986 MK1 BX 1.9na D Auto(in Mothman Andy's stable )
layed up roppy 1.9TD XANT estate, now gone to meet her maker
purple and lilac metalic 2CV(VIOLET)registered to her in doors
1972 DS special been layed up aprox 31 years
angle
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Re: Xantia - Reverse / Rear Fog light issue

Post by angle »

citronut wrote:does or has it ever had a tow bar,

if it has the first thing i would do is disconnect tow bar wiring, and try to repair/remake the original wiring
Agreed. However, the wiring in the boot area looks like this:

Image

So, I've used all my skills to create a wiring diagram:

Image

'To roof' are the neatly tied back, and I'm assuming original wires. I'm assuming the grey ones are redundant as they just connect into the trailer? 'To sill' is where someone has run a pink wire and a green wire (on the left of the first photo) underneath the carpet and up behind the dash where they do this:

Image
Image

One soldered into an existing wire under the steering column and one that goes up, via a bullet connector, to somewhere I can't see without taking more trim off.

'Black relay' is what I'm assuming is a relay...

Image

Its at this point I'm getting a bit out of my depth I think...
citroenxm
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Re: Xantia - Reverse / Rear Fog light issue

Post by citroenxm »

I wouldnt of looked at any of that.. I would of looked at the wiring between the hatch and the roof for broken wires and cross touching.. pop the grommet out of its fixing and try sliding it up and check the wires on the drivers side of the hatch by the hinge.. my guess there is wire insulation broken away and they are touching..

I still could be wrong though.

that black box in your hand is a buzzer box. When a trailer board is plugged in it buzes or beeps with the indicator to tell you the board is connected and the lights for indicators are working on the board.
Sharing a pug 207 1.6 hdi Sw 16v.
M reg Xm 2.1 td auto exclusive S2 269k and rising
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A very sad...
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