Park Lights Front And Back Not Working

[Icehunk]

Hi All, I have just bought (two weeks ago) a 2003 Grand Voyager 3.3 xs and converted it to LPG. Everything runs fine except last weekend I was going over everything before a week long road trip and found that the park lights front and back along with the number plate lights and the fog lights front and back did not come on. I have had a motor electrician look over the car and he has confirmed that the fuses, relay's, bulbs and wiring are all OK. He suspects, as shown in the wiring diagram of the vehicle, that it is either in the BCM or the FCM at fault. Anybody had this fault before and how do you repair it please. As it stands I cannot drive in the dark as there are no driving lights at the back of the vehicle. Cheers...

[bignev]

Welcome! Another gas convert!

 

Yes I had something similar, my Startech stainless steel side tubes have lights in them and I guess one had get wet (short version).

 

So - try removing the "IOD" fuse for half an hour, it reset mine. Do you have the radio code?!

 

Or, onwards from there, battery negative terminal disconnect for half hour - but again beware radio codes !! etc!!

[Icehunk]

Hi bignev,

 

Thanks for your suggestion...

 

Just got back from a long road trip and tried everything twice with no joy... still with the same problem and cannot drive at night legally.

 

Any suggestions before an expensive main dealer visit.... 

[mikebh8]

Hhmmm...do you have the reverse light/lights and/or indicators?

It looks like a fault with the negative, did you try with a multimeter see if you have power coming to the wires?

 

Each light has a separate switch, all except the fog light have a common negative (for testing porpuses can be used the car's body, however not necessarily used in a car's circuit), the fog light and the day light have a common positive.

To test: multimeter on DC volts( if you don't have one, get a bulb that definitely works and two pieces of wire).

With the engine off, remove taillight ,ignition on, turn day light on, touch middle pin and body, you should get battery's voltage...

 

 

Hope it helps.

[mikebh8]

My apologies, I just reread the post, apparently the wires were tested.

How is everything OK if the lights are not turning on....somewhere the circuit is open, no test would give all good readings on the fuses, bulbs, wires... etc. There is a fault and at least one reading was overlooked. Were you there when the test was done?

 

Not an expert but I suggest a second test,doesn't have to be main dealer, any auto electrician should be able to find the fault.

 

On mine, with my tester, when the front head light was removed, I had few (2 or 3 I don't remember exactly) faults on, did you have a tester connected to the ecu?

Edited August 3, 2017 by mikebh8

[Icehunk]

Hi, I had an auto electrician have another look at the car and he confirmed that the light switch is working fine. The wires are OK along with the relays and fuses. He even took out the park light relay and replaced with a working one and still nothing. He then tried to "jump" the relay and the lights came on along with the rear fog lights but not the front fog lights!!! (maybe different relay).

 

He says the relay is not getting power and the two things that control that are from the light switch to the BCM and from there to the FCM and from there to the relay. So his conclusion is either the BCM or the FCM is at fault or both.

 

Still cannot drive at night..... anyway to repair the BCM and /or FCM?

[mikebh8]

OK, that's more accurate test. The front ones would be on a separate switch anyway.

Assuming the circuit from that relay to the Bcm is OK, try resetting the bcm by disconnecting the battery and connecting negative and positive together for at least one hour. If is just an error would clear.

If that doesn't work, try (with the battery disconnected) removing the bcm connector plugs, spray them with WD40, brush them with a soft brush, leave them for 20-30 mins so the WD40 will completely dry.

If that doesn't work either, the bcm is at fault, however before taking it for granted, you should identify the wire coming out from the bcm, the one that runs the day light, making sure the fault starts from there.

 

If none of the above work, and you wish to have a cheap fix... first, do you have low beam and high beam lights? also I assume you have brake lights!?

You can run the day light through the low beam circuit, I would use a relay to keep a separate circuit somehow, using the low beam lights circuit as a switch.

 

Actually, you can use the day light's relay, you only redirect the switching input in parallel with a low beam bulb, you may have to do the same for the front ones, the only difference will be that they will come one only when you turn on the low beam lights, this will affect if you want to leave the parking lights on during the night so others can see the car being in a dark spot..

 

Mind that you need to sort the problem by the next MOT due date as it is a fail.

 

Hope it helps.

Edited August 5, 2017 by mikebh8

[Icehunk]

Hi, well at last the problem has been corrected.

 

Extensive searching and trial and error had led me down many avenues... and the final solution was found by accident after a heavy downpour when it was discovered that the seal to the bonnet had almost disintegrated and was not sealing the rain water from the engine compartment. This resulted in the discovery of water sitting on top of the fuse box.

 

After further investigation it was discovered that the fuse box had a substantial amount of water inside it and the printed circuit inside the fuse box had started to corrode.

 

I purchased a second hand fuse box of the same model and year and removed the damaged one and replaced it. And low and behold everything worked.

 

I also removed the old bonnet seal and replaced it with a large self adhesive draft excluder made of rubber.

 

Everything seems to be working fine so far.

 

Thank you for your advice and I hope someone can benefit from my discoveries. 

[bignev]

Well absolutely super, good stuff!

 

And how strange too! But ruddy marvelous it's fixed. I wonder if that might sort my older models TCM / PCM communication problem........

Hmmm food for thought.