Technical Pesky Wires!!! - which is which

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Technical Pesky Wires!!! - which is which

Sei-Mad

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Feb 16, 2003
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Location
Morton, United Kingdom.
Well, fitted the Ring Foglights to my W-Reg Sei and everything is in place - now got the remote control kit for the Ring Lights - the fogs are earthed to the chassis in the engine bay next to the main earth bolt under the ECU. However I have a problem - the fogs need to work with the sidelights as it says in the manual, but I need to daisy chain it with one of the side light wires. Now can someone tell me which colour is + on the sidelight? Black or Black/yellow - pick the wrong colour and the car will go pop [xx(]

Hence why I've posted here - I don't want to cut the wrong wire - however my electrical knowlege on cars is very slim. But I am guessing Black/Yellow as the main earth is Black. Am I correct or wrong?

Cheers

SEI~MAD
 
Probably right but there is a chance its not.
A quick thinking bodged up way :):pto test this is:
Find a car bulb i.e brake light bulb with one of the connectors on the bottom and one on the side, take out the sidelight bulb and bulb holder.
Stick a piece of wire in the bulb holder in one of the terminals and place it on the side of the bulb, the bottom of the bulb should earth out on a piece of metal i.e non painted screw
Get a mate to switch on the sidelights, if it lights up the wire you have in your hand is positive, if it does'nt light up stick the piece of wire in the other terminal in the bulb holder.

"The Not so Fast but Furious"
 
or pull the wire u think is the side lights out of one side and put the side lights on if the side lights are out then its right :)

GONE IN 60 MINS
 
Cheers, thanks for those, why didn't I think of it in the 1st place, I see it now... I go and stick a wire in the bulb terminals at the back and me turn black with the sound of zzzzzssssssssssttt :D - nothing worse having a jolt from the battery :I

I'll post back with the details

SEI~MAD
 
Humm, tried as mentioned above to stick the wire in either of the sockets and nothing happens, I will have to try again tomorrow when there is more light as me thinks that I need to undo the battery terminals nuts and stick them in - not laying them on top of the terminals [xx(] at least i didn't go black with my hair on ends :D

SEI~MAD
 
I'm with RIB on this one: most likely to blow a fuse if you're powering the spots off the sidelight circuit.

I reckon your spots at least 2 x 60 watts
that's about 10 amps running, lots more on the startup surge when the lamp filaments are cold.

I don't know what your sidelight fuse rating is on your SEI, but the old Panda is either 7.5A, or 10A, depending on which side it is :I
By the time you add up all the other bulbs (front and rear sidelights, on one side , plus a numberplate light, plus panel lighting etc you've got 2 or 3 amps. Add your 10A to that the fuse probably won't last very long as it's being overloaded [xx(]
Generally fuses cope with a modest overload for a while, but they have a shorter life than they aught to have B)

BTW are your sidelights still OK [?]

Best option ( unless anyone knows better ) is to power a relay from the sidelight volts, and run a separate (and fused) power lead to the contacts on the relay, then on to your spots.


Regards

John H
 
Without drawing a pic this might be confusing but here goes:
Find a wire which goes live when sidelights are on, you could use the illumination for elec window switches etc.

Tee into it, and feed this into a switch on your dash.
Out from the switch take a wire to the coil of a fog lamp relay (you'll have to buy one). The other side of the relay coil wire should go to earth.

The relay will have two more terminals, one of which wants to go to the + side of the battery VIA A FUSE (buy a fuse + holder for a couple of quid). Last terminal of fog lamp relay wants to go to both fog lamps (+ connection) then fog lamp - terminals both need to go to earth.

Good luck, and don't worry!

Pete.
Cinq sporting 1242cc
http://mysite.freeserve.com/close_to_cracking_up/
 
Yes, I am using the Ring Remote control Fog relay, but its the live wire I need to locate in the engine bay. At the moment I will hit the live on the sidelights themseleves, but there is 2 colours on the wires black or black/yellow. One of them is earth and the other is + , don't know which one is which.

Tried on both wires on the sidelights and they are still okay. Lights up etc.

I will try again tomorrow after work :)

SEI~MAD
 
Black is generally "earth" in FIAT electrics.

The two colour "power" wires are often UK passenger side... go for the black/yellow.

If you've any doubts about your new wiring try putting the wire you're hoping to power from the sidelights on a known good +12v - the battery.
If it all works as expected all you need to do is tap into the sidelight circuit.


Regards

John H
 
I phoned Ring today and its a fault on the remote unit - two of the wires have been mixed up in production. So out comes the solidering iron and now all working :D:p - now I can blind the sods who leave their full beams on on these country roads :D[8D]

SEI~MAD
 
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