parking & rear lights not working on mitsi fto

goz83

Two days ago, I had my headlights turned on and just before arriving home, the lights on my dash went out for a few seconds and then came back on. I later discovered that it is all lights connected to the parking lights. So, the dash lights, parking lights and rear lights all go dead. The headlights and presumably the brake lights work fine. This happened again yesterday, 3 times and today, it happened a lot, with the lights more off than on.

I checked the fuses and they are fine. I'm thinking it's a loose connection, because anything else would cause a short and blow a fuse. I have under dash lights and after market dials installed and I needed to upgrade from a 10 to 20amp fuse. This upgrade was done nearly 2 years ago, so I don't think that's the problem.

Any other suggestions? It's a 97 FTO.

I will bring to the garage on Monday if I can't sort it myself, but would rather avoid the unknown expense.

colm_mcm

Check the front fog light switch. They burn out sometimes

goz83

colm_mcm wrote: »

Check the front fog light switch. They burn out sometimes

Even if never used? I think I had them on once since I bought the car.

visual

Recheck all your after marking wiring for all your little add ons.

martinr5232

Sounds like possibly a light switch could be drawing too much currant through it to run all your after market stuff.

Do they come back on when you switch them on after they go out ??

goz83

martinr5232 wrote: »

Sounds like possibly a light switch could be drawing too much currant through it to run all your after market stuff.

Do they come back on when you switch them on after they go out ??

All I have are 2 led light strips in the footwells. Glowdial clocks on half power and 2 connections for gps and phone charger that I never use. Have no problems since changing the fuse and the battery is larger than standard too. It seems to be an intermittent thing...and no, turning everything off and on does nothing, so i'm stumped here.

Today, when the lights went out, I parked up outside my office, left the parking switch on, but all lights were out. When I returned to the car a few hours later, the lights were all on. Car hadn't been moved. A few minutes later, they went out again.

martinr5232

goz83 wrote: »

All I have are 2 led light strips in the footwells. Glowdial clocks on half power and 2 connections for gps and phone charger that I never use. Have no problems since changing the fuse and the battery is larger than standard too. It seems to be an intermittent thing...and no, turning everything off and on does nothing, so i'm stumped here.

Today, when the lights went out, I parked up outside my office, left the parking switch on, but all lights were out. When I returned to the car a few hours later, the lights were all on. Car hadn't been moved. A few minutes later, they went out again.

You have a bad connection somewhere im afraid i cant be anymore help to you it will be a case of going from your light switch and tracing the wiring from there.

goz83

I will check it out on Sunday. Thanks all for help. Was hoping for the magic answer

goz83

Looks like the problem is sorted. I asked my brother in law to bring his volt meter around and check it out. Within 5 minutes, the steering cowl was off and as it came off, it tapped the wiring at the stalk and the lights came back on :pac:

Seems that the connection was just a little loose, so fingers crossed it doesn't happen again. Cheap fix at €0