Electrical Gremlins!

team_ream · Post by **team_ream** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:28 pm

Thanks ya'll. Haven't had time to do ANYTHING,but hopefully will tonight. However, there has been a new development and I'm assuming this is not how the van was designed - power windows and AC/Heat only work with headlights ON. That's not normal, right?

izack98 · Post by **izack98** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:38 pm

No, not normal

sealica · Post by **sealica** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 6:32 pm

Well I'm pulling my door lock fuse for the time being, anyone know if this effects anything other than doors locking =) I did a search, but short of experimenting I'm not sure if it does.

I went through my electrical grounds (one behind driver's seat, one on bolt thru front bash plate) and sanded/cleaned ... I haven't test driven since I'm doing some painting and have a tarp up, but I have noticed certain doors being unlocked which I believe I locked.

Battery bay looks fine, although if there is something wrong here I'm not sure what you do short of replacing all wiring ... nothing visibly wrong short of disassembling wiring looms and such . . .

I'm trying to track down more electrical grounds ... would the negative battery wire opposite the battery be one?

I believe I may have found the DRL module . . . there is a thingmajig in behind the dash which buzzes with key in ignition and goes away with engine started ... it's been disconnected since I bought the van and remains disconnected, but it buzzes when I reconnect it :p

Overlanderjay · Post by **Overlanderjay** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 12:24 am

The buzzer is the warning that you left your headlights on and open the drivers door ,i've seen one go haywire like yours when it would buzz all the time we disconnected it also Cheers Jay

sealica · Post by **sealica** » Tue Jan 31, 2017 5:11 pm

So I went ahead and followed the negative battery wire to the 14mm bolt on the engine block. I removed this bolt and sanded both surfaces. I also cleaned some oil from the middle connection to the frame where some oil had sprayed from a dipstick mishap.

Reconnecting the 14mm bolt which holds the grounding wire to the engine block was a MASSIVE hassle. 14mm ratcheting *stubby* wrench would have likely been useful, but I did eventually manage with my 3/8 socket wrench . . . the tricky part was getting the bolt back in with one hand and fighting the cable so I couldn't get the wire in the exact same position as before and it's now pointing a few degrees forward instead of directly at the ground -- I don't think that's an issue at least I got it reattached!

Went for a sweet ride to the San Juan ridge & estuary covering 400kms ... no electrical issues - but now just after a short drive the whole doors locking at random thing has come back. Pulled the door lock fuse again for time being . . . the only ground I didn't clean was the one which attaches to the metal frame under the dash right behind the stereo head unit. I recall it being pretty tidy other than the metal frame having plenty of surface rust, but why did the issue go away then return . . .

kinda perplexed!

sealica · Post by **sealica** » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:24 pm

I was doing my second repair on my passenger headlight this afternoon and now I have an error where the interior instrument cluster back-light is by default off. If I turn on my foglights [two yellow centre lights for off-road use that use H3 bulbs] the instrument cluster illuminates!? But fog lights no longer turn on ...

The repair involved:
-removed LH headlamp assembly
-removed socket for H3 bulb to clean corrosion, H1 bulb is fine ...
-reassembled headlamp assembly temporarily to go grab tools; including solder gun, solder, crimp connectors, wire-stripper, 14 guage wire (little big I know, but this is what I used).
-removed LH headlamp assembly and reassembled the now cleaned H3 bulb socket, but the bulb retaining socket and the part where the ground (black wire) attaches to the socket is broken.
-Didn't have much success with solder gun so I used a crimp butt connector to splice the ~18ga black ground wire with 14ga wire ....

-It got dark so *intermission* .. had a pretty bad headache I think from when the breeze changed and I got a whiff of fumes ... ***ZZZ***

-Woke up and bungee corded the side lamp (including indicator) to the van and drove with only one headlamp assembly - this is when I noticed the instrument cluster (speedometer, etc.) was not illuminated ...
- bought a ring terminal and crimped that to the wire spliced yesterday and I attached to the light socket with a small screw and lock washer directly into the steel of the lamp socket
-noticed the instrument cluster illuminates with the fog light switch!?!?

Any thoughts?

sealica · Post by **sealica** » Wed Jul 05, 2017 8:30 am

Well my head must have taken a knock with all the crawling around inside the gremlin tunnels as of late. I flipped realized I simply wasn't turning the headlamp dial far enough to activate the dash illumination! BAH! But the foglights started working again - so there are gremlins - REALLY!

Post by **Growlerbearnz** » Wed Jul 05, 2017 2:06 pm

The dashboard lights (along with park and tail lamps) should come on if the fog lights are on, or if the headlamp switch is in any position but "off".

The headlamp switch is a known failure point. I don't see how it would cause *all* your electrical issues, but it might be worth cleaning it up just in case. Falco wrote an excellent how-to here: http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=11284

I wonder if your Deli lived by the sea. You might have corrosion throughout the electrical system. It might be time to invest in a tube of deoxit, contact cleaner spray, silicone grease, and a scotch pad, and start going through all the contacts and terminals? Ugh.

sealica · Post by **sealica** » Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:10 pm

So I finally got around to putting deoxit on my combi switch, and also found the error of my ways in that the steering column does move aside to replace the combi switch (which didn't work for me, other used combi switch has same issues). I just didn't remove enough bolts.

This was all a result of the issue I described earlier with the dashboard lights/tail lights failing to turn on with the headlamps - except this time it persisted. I disconnected my fog lights to be able to drive in traffic with tail lights but not fog lamps. This being a hopefully temporary solution I put deoxit on the combi switch and reassambled. This did not fix it ... at first .... the only thing that happened was a thick smoke emanating from the area when turning the headlamp switch at the start. About two weeks later ... after this same thing happening (the smoke) several times I have dashboard lights on with the headlamps ... but still either all headlights (high beams) or just the corner running lamps.

I haven't disassembled the combi switch, but I can only imagine what all that smoke is coming from!?!?