Mystery red light fitted in switch panel

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Stuart Gray, Nov 18, 2003.

  1. Stuart Gray

    Stuart Gray Guest

    Hi all, As the subject says, I have a red light fitted in the switch panel
    to the left of the steering wheel (right hand drive) in my newly acquired
    '91 745 GL with auto gearbox. It is next to the "alarm armed" led you
    usually get. It flashes very briefly only when I do a fast turn round a
    roundabout, ie. a right turn. Never comes on when I turn left. I have
    checked all fluids etc to make sure it is not low on something like gearbox
    fluid, coolant etc. Anyone have any idea what it could be? There is a
    Sparkrite alarm fitted to the car which works, but the light does not flash
    with this that I can see. When I arm the alarm, only one side of the
    indicator lights flash (left side), which might indicate a break in the
    alarm wiring somewhere, but I don't think it correlates to the red light on
    the switch panel. Again, if anyone has any ideas, I would be most grateful,
    otherwise I have a long journey from the light, down through the wiring
    behind the dashboard to find where it ends.
     
    Stuart Gray, Nov 18, 2003
    #1
  2. You mean the light is among the switches for clock adjustment, fog
    lights and stuff? Not among the rest of lights inside the
    instrumentation box?

    Never seen a light there on our '92.

    Obviuosly you are in a country with left hand driving. Which one? Might
    help (not me though). Cars on differents markets have slight variations.


    --
    Gunnar

    240 Turbo Wagon '84 200 K Miles
    940 Wagon '92 150 K Miles
    on Swedish roads
     
    Gunnar Eikman, Nov 18, 2003
    #2
  3. Because there's more to the internet than hits alone, "Stuart Gray"

    It's probably not this (it flashing whilst cornering has me puzzled)
    but:

    If you have (or had) a towbar fitted you should also have a trailer
    indicator monitor, to tell you that the trailer indicators are
    flashing. On one of my old 240s this took the form of a red light
    mounted into one of the switch blanks on the dashboard.


    --

    Stewart Hargrave

    I run on beans - laser beans


    For email, replace 'SpamOnlyToHere' with my name
     
    Stewart Hargrave, Nov 19, 2003
    #3
  4. Stuart Gray

    Stuart Gray Guest

    You may be onto something there Stewart. The car has a towbar, which I
    haven't used yet. I will when I get my trailer out from behind my soon to be
    scrapped old 740. I would imagine the flash could be caused by a short in
    the wiring to the towbar. It's certainly a possibility. Thanks for that, it
    never even occurred to me it could be something like that, my old 240 had
    something similar with a beep noise for the trailer indicators, the old 740
    had nothing. Can't wait to try it out. Cheers !!!!!!!

    Stuart.
     
    Stuart Gray, Nov 19, 2003
    #4
  5. Stuart Gray

    Stuart Gray Guest

    Stewart Hargrave, you were right on the money!!!! I drove my old C reg 740
    to the scrapyard today (pauses for a minutes silence in honour of the old
    girl who gave me 320,000 of her life before succumbing to rust)
    This meant I could get my trailer attached to the new girl and the light lit
    with the indicators. Now to find the short.....
    Many thanks Stewart,

    Stuart :)
     
    Stuart Gray, Nov 22, 2003
    #5
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