Hi everyone - posted some time ago and had a couple of responses but the issue persists. Any electrical experts out there, your help is needed as it's a mystery to me. If I can hit it or torque it, fine. If I need a multimeter... not so much.
1995 300tdi RRC Vogue with the following bastard in the loom:
When you turn the steering wheel, and I don't mean lock to lock, just gently rock i back on forth on the slack before actually bothering the power steering itself, you can see the headlights dim and then brighten again. You can see it on the radio too, the background lighting of which pulses from bright to dim.
The interior lights do this too, the heater blower motor slows and picks up again in time with the pulsing and when driving at night not only is it noticeable, but the instrument lights and backlighting also dim at the same time.
This is all simultaneous, by the way, and I must stress it's not load on the power steering drawing power from the ALT as I'm not even turning the wheels, just rocking the steering wheel on the slack.
In other news when I touch the brake pedal at night, often the speedo will drop out, sometimes the rev counter too. there is a click from the passenger footwell when this happens like a relay doing something. There's tons of them there and I found a corroded one attached to a loom marked WWWWWW (no idea) but that's made not difference, having replaced it.
Occasionally when it's like this if I indicate, the speedo dies and the rev counter bounces up and down in time with the indicator.
Sometimes hitting a hard bump is enough to do this (drop the speedo/rev counter/dim the lights then after a second or so it picks back up).
I've looked down the entire length of the steering column and can't find anything touching it - could the rotary coupler be sufficiently duff as to cause this?! The horn works fine. Or the ignition barrel wiring? It can sometimes be stiff to turn the key?
I've cleaned the earth from the battery to the chassis, the ones in the kick panels look fine, and the one from the starter was done when it needed a new starter - the garage said it was fine.
The radio used to cut out when all this was going on but it pi*sed me off so much I just wired it straight off the battery.
Are there any other earth points I need to find? (Can't help but think it's a fault on the headlight wiring as well as the steering wheel somewhere). Has anybody ever experienced ANYTHING like this at all? Basically at my wits end.
Wiring wise it's totally standard other than factory spots on the bumper.
Any advice hugely welcome especially as, more urgently, my girlfriend now won't drive it at night so won't come and pick me up from the pub!
1995 300tdi RRC Vogue with the following bastard in the loom:
When you turn the steering wheel, and I don't mean lock to lock, just gently rock i back on forth on the slack before actually bothering the power steering itself, you can see the headlights dim and then brighten again. You can see it on the radio too, the background lighting of which pulses from bright to dim.
The interior lights do this too, the heater blower motor slows and picks up again in time with the pulsing and when driving at night not only is it noticeable, but the instrument lights and backlighting also dim at the same time.
This is all simultaneous, by the way, and I must stress it's not load on the power steering drawing power from the ALT as I'm not even turning the wheels, just rocking the steering wheel on the slack.
In other news when I touch the brake pedal at night, often the speedo will drop out, sometimes the rev counter too. there is a click from the passenger footwell when this happens like a relay doing something. There's tons of them there and I found a corroded one attached to a loom marked WWWWWW (no idea) but that's made not difference, having replaced it.
Occasionally when it's like this if I indicate, the speedo dies and the rev counter bounces up and down in time with the indicator.
Sometimes hitting a hard bump is enough to do this (drop the speedo/rev counter/dim the lights then after a second or so it picks back up).
I've looked down the entire length of the steering column and can't find anything touching it - could the rotary coupler be sufficiently duff as to cause this?! The horn works fine. Or the ignition barrel wiring? It can sometimes be stiff to turn the key?
I've cleaned the earth from the battery to the chassis, the ones in the kick panels look fine, and the one from the starter was done when it needed a new starter - the garage said it was fine.
The radio used to cut out when all this was going on but it pi*sed me off so much I just wired it straight off the battery.
Are there any other earth points I need to find? (Can't help but think it's a fault on the headlight wiring as well as the steering wheel somewhere). Has anybody ever experienced ANYTHING like this at all? Basically at my wits end.
Wiring wise it's totally standard other than factory spots on the bumper.
Any advice hugely welcome especially as, more urgently, my girlfriend now won't drive it at night so won't come and pick me up from the pub!
