Hi folks.

Bessie is a 1988 1000CL. She had 15 minutes of fame as an extra in the daytime BBC drama Doctors a couple of years ago, but the limelight hasn't gone to her head.

After longstanding and intermittent ignition problems, I traced the problem to a faulty ignition switch and replaced it. However, once the engine is running, I have to turn the ignition key back a fraction before some of the electrics will work, including the wipers and lights.

It's as if the switch and the barrel are very slightly misaligned, but having taken it apart umpteen times, I'm sure they're not. It has been suggested that I need to replace the switch, barrel and keys together. La la la, I'm not listening, I don't want to hear that.

I can live with this quirk, although I don't understand how it's happened. Any ideas?

But the bigger question is this: Is it an MOT fail?

it should not be an MOT fail..

when you take the actual ignition switch off, how are you gauging where the little gear is turned to? it sounds like that may be a tooth out.
have you already tried that?

one of the ways i set my ignition switch up was to have the key pointing to the parking light mode, then set the ignition switch to parking light mode, then clip the whole thing back together again.


other than that, give the ignition switch a real good spray of switch cleaner (and give the ignition switch a lot of turning on and off).. with the battery disconnected.
should clean any build up on the contacts.

As John said it could be a tooth out.


Failing that changing it over for a new one is not a hard job £30 off ebay and 1.5hrs work max.

I'm not sure which little gear you mean. There are two lugs on the barrel that locate with two holes on the switch, so there aren't any gear teeth that I can see. Am I missing something?

The switch I used was Fiat Lancia 5888983 (Febi Bilstein 14325). Can't post an image link as I'm a noob.

I just pushed the barrel in and waggled it till I felt the lugs locate in the holes and the barrel slid fully home. So I'm not sure I'd dignify it as an "alignment technique", although there only seemed to be one orientation that worked.

Reassuring to know it's not an MOT fail though, ta!

Should have said there's no point me trying to clean the contacts, the old switch is fried.

Bessie said:

I'm not sure which little gear you mean.

Click to expand...

Left from the centre circle



Are you sure that those two pips are aligned with the switch case?

Have you checked your Hedgehogs?

How the hell is a self confessed noob to know what or where his hedgehogs are and what to do with them if he finds them?

Like the advice anyway as it is the most common fault on a Panda other than rust!

Dave

pandamaniac said:

How the hell is a self confessed noob to know what to do with them if he finds them?

Click to expand...

You can see little gear here, exposed by some nice youths and their screwdriver

Thanks for the pics, that helps. The pips/lugs on the photo are the ones I aligned with the holes in the switch. There only seems to be one way to fit them together, but I might try taking it apart again this weekend. I wonder if I have the right part, or a slightly different one. It looks the same and it seems to fit but it's not working quite right...

Hedgehogs? Had to look that up on the forum. Less cute than the photo, and they have some interestingly crusty-looking deposits on them.