Two brown wires on a BX

Unread post by **alan s** » 20 Oct 2005, 11:26

I'm trying to restore what was a nice BX Tri Estate but have a couple of things that have me tossed.
When the grille was removed, there were two brown wires that had been cut at about the central point of the area behind the grille.
The car is air conditioned and this works well and the both fans seem to operate OK. Relays for the fans are there as is all the wires to the relays for them, so I'm at a loss to figure where these wires used to go. They are a very light gauge.
Inside the clock is non operative, but I see from the fuse diagram that the same fuse foor the radio also is for the clock and as the radio was taken out of the car prior to my purchase

I'm wondering if perhaps in the haste to snavel the radio a few wires were cut but I also wonder if there's any chance that these brown wires might be in some way connected as they seem to run back into the main loom.
Any thoughts???

Alan S

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 20 Oct 2005, 13:34

Does it have two horns? if not it may have had and that would account for the other two wires.

vanny · Unread post by **vanny** » 20 Oct 2005, 13:46

the wires will be for the bonnet open light, should be a pushy down swith just infront of the catch though it might well have been removed all together!

Stick a meter on the plug for the clok and see what comes out. The results will change for different light positions (clock gets dimmer) and you should find that there is one brown one which provides the ground. The loom for the interior is almost without exception totally seperate fromt he front engine loom, so i very much doubt they have anything to do with the clock. If you have power, see if the backlight is working then remove the two screws int he back of the clock and take the thing apart, give the lcd a wiggle (left to right) and put it back together. If theres no power then ONE wire to the clock i think comes directly up from the radio and will no doubt be the cause of the fault!

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 20 Oct 2005, 14:47

usual reason for what apeares to be no clock is the back light has blown,as vanny said check for power and try new back light bulb
regards malcolm

jeremy · Unread post by **jeremy** » 20 Oct 2005, 15:26

The door closure (and bonnet closure) warnings should come off fuse F3 together with the instrument and clock lighting, wipers etc.

The clock shares fuse F7 with the door locks, radio, boot and interior lights and others.

The 4 connections to the clock are I think earth, 12v unswitched, 12 v switched but undimmed for the light and a 4th feed from the sidelight circuit to operate the dimmer. The dimmer is in fact on the circuit board itself and I eventually traced a fault with the bright light setting (sidelights off) to dry joints on the clock circuit board in the region of the feed socket.

I seem to remember there isa bit about the clock (mainly how to doctor its lighting) on the DIY site.

I'm sure the wires near the bonnet catch are for the door open light system but while my TD has this system it has no switch (but does have a bulb!). However my car has no plip, interior light delay and one or two other bits that GTi's got.

Unread post by **alan s** » 20 Oct 2005, 21:13

Thanks so far, I'll take a look when I wake up properly; it's only 6am here so I thought I'd squeeze this in before you guys all hit the hay.

No backlight on the clock and it seems to be permanently on 3.31 so obviously nothing woking. Radio has been taken out but the cradle is still there suggesting they possibly pulled the radio out in the belief it was faulty and there appears to be a description pencilled on the back of the clock as though it was bought from a dismantler so obviously they thought the clock was faulty.

Car has twin horns, both still working but no sign of a bonnet closure light switch. This model was brought into Australia as a "poverty pack" so may be they didn't have that? Like Jeremy's car, this has no remote or electric mirrors either.
I'll drop down the fuse board later in the morning and report back.

Alan S

vanny · Unread post by **vanny** » 21 Oct 2005, 00:02

god damn strange if you ask me! The only brown wires that are 'thin' in that area run to the bonnet open switch. The horn wires should never get close (there in the wing and wont stretch that far), the fogs are higher grade wire and have a black and a white connector on the end, the two resistors are heavy guage wires (3 wires mostly blue and two mostly green) and there really isnt a lot else in that neck of the woods! Perhaps an alarm was fitted? and used the Cit wiring system?

As for the clock, 205 clocks are identical and the internals from a 309, 405, XM should work, but i guess you have a whole fleet of them in the back yard?