I got a strange one, last night I changed a couple of instrument blubs,, and now Ive lost all instrument lights and right hand front sidelight, cant see anything I may have knocked loose and theres power to the fuse , switch and l/h side. any ideas anyone.
Cheers Coggy

9 hours and still no lights, blimey the P38 syndrome has followed me

Have you actually checked the side light bulb, I would have thought that if you disturbed something when stripping the dash out you would loose all sidelights rather than a single one. As for the instrument lights probably worth pulling it back out to check connections as I believe they are all wired in parallel so you have probably dislodged a main supply or earth wire

Cheers K/man
All bulbs are new I changed them all, r/h side light and instruments lights take power from fuse 16, fuse is good and theres power to the fuse, I checked the lighting switch and its working as it should,,, I have checked all the wiring I can see and found nothing wrong, the bad earth is next on my list,, however I did find the ignition switch has been changed ( I think ) wires been cut and remade, so not sure im dealing with a 300 switch,, and so im not sure how much the wiring may have been messed with.. it looks like the immobiliser has been removed ( common thing I hear) as I have no transponder fob, it all works like a series III... the wiring diagram I have is for a 1997 300tdi,, mine is a 96, don't know if theres any differences as I cant find a diagram for a 96,,,, one other thing I found was behind the dash panel theres 2 light gauge BLACK wires into a spade connector that were taped up and tucked out of the way,,, I have no idea what they are for,,, well in the morning its back into the wire maze again,,,, As im here theres another small prob, the wiper relay, is there any way to use a different relay as they seem bloody hard to get hold of,, wiper work but cant get intermittent and they wont park as they should,,, tried holding the relay and no click when I operate the wipers,,,, Cheers Coggy

Well its a dead short somewhere ?????

what joy ive now lost the l/h sidelight too

Well they are all working sort of,,,,, Pos 1 on the switch gives me sidelights instrument lights and I think dim dip,, all ok so far I think,,, Poss 2 gives me dipped headlights, no main beam from the high beam setting,, but can get main beam with the headlight flasher,,, so now thinking, dicky flasher switch, or relay,,,,,, Your comments please lads.
Cheers Coggy

Have you shorted the side light live circuit and blown the fuse. The dash lights come off one of the side light fuses.

nope,,,,,,,,,,,, but have been changing fuses without my glasses,,,,,, 3 amp instead of 5,,, all working now... your right about the dash lights they are feed by fuse 16 same as the r/h sidelight.......... " Should have gone to specsavers " lol lol lol what a dipstick

Cogswell&Harrison said:

nope,,,,,,,,,,,, but have been changing fuses without my glasses,,,,,, 3 amp instead of 5,,, all working now... your right about the dash lights they are feed by fuse 16 same as the r/h sidelight.......... " Should have gone to specsavers " lol lol lol what a dipstick

Click to expand...

Excellent, another electrical repair by remote control

I have written an electrical tutorial it might be worth a read.....

The tutorial - http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f38/tutorial-car-electrics-245168.html