Hey all, once again apologies for not being on here for a long time, been busy!

Right, I have a small issue that I really need to ask you tech-savvy lot as I've been studying my Haines manual, and the stupid wiring diagrams, for at least 4 hours now.

As you may know from a previous thread of mine a long time ago, I had to cut out the external lights switch and connect all the wires to keep the lights continually on. (The switch went kapputt.) Yesterday I decided to try and fit in a new temporary on/off switch, which works, and have now come to a new, pretty irritating problem. You may laugh if you wish, my friend couldn't get off the floor when they saw this.

The radio only works if you turn the external lights on, thus, completely defeating the object of fixing the light switch.

Now, according to the Haines manual spaghetti mess diagrams, there should be no direct connection between the two. That's if I'm reading it right. Therefore, it may be a short-circuit somewhere.

But, could there actually be some connection between the two? Like, I may have connected up the switch wrong and causing this to happen. I'd have a good look but the weather today, and the fact it's currently dark, doesn't really help.

Cheers,
Rhys

Seems like typical Italian electrics to me Only thing I can really think of is that you have accidently connected the feed to the radio to the switch. Or actually could it be possible that the radio is earthing through the headlight wiring?

Sounds like it could be an earthing issue to me

Hmm.. what colour wire indicates earth for the lights? I know Black is for the radio, according to the diagram.

Not 100% sure. Have a search, there was a thread that myself and 'Petel' made, that'll have it in iirc

On the radio's you get a wire for dim control, so when you put the lights on at night, the radio isn't so bright it distracts you. you might have mixed that up somewhere? not a clue though tbh. has to be an earth problem.

A good possibility there Craig. Don't think its part of origional Panda wiring, but if its been added it might have added to the confusion.

Checked for the earth wiring, played around with the cables but to no avail. I'll write down what I find out, and what I get from connecting different cables together. Just about to start working on the old girl now (needs an oil change - badly, but the sump plug doesn't want to budge! :bang and will write down what I can, then post the findings on here. That is, unless, I fix it first.

Found myself a multimeter too, so that may slightly help me or confuse me more.

Rhys

All fixed. Just connected the radio Earth to the clock Earth, and the Battery/Ignition cables to the Live on the heater fan switch. Bit bodgy I know, but it works a treat.

Rhys

Sounds like the radio took its feed from the headlight switch and when you've wired in the switch you've got some of the wires mixed up. Has your Panda not got the original factory wiring for a radio or wiring for the cigarette lighter? Would be better to use one of those

Trust me, I already tried those. Gave the same issue with the lights though, so decided to use something on a completely different loop. Only trouble is, now it doesn't give a constant power from the battery, it keeps losing all the settings everytime I turn it off.

Never mind, it doesn't really bother me.

Rhys

Run a wire from the batt to the radio to save stations??

purple haze said:

Run a wire from the batt to the radio to save stations??

Click to expand...

or.. just run a wire from the batt to power the radio.

firstcar-Y10 said:

or.. just run a wire from the batt to power the radio.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:....done it loads of times...