93 240 wagon.

as soon as you start the car the headlights and running lights come on irrespective of headlight switch which is brand new.

also the rear defroster light comes on

if you turn on the switch to activate running light they stay on and cluster night lights come as they should

if you move the switch to the headlight position all lights remain on BUT the cluster nights lights go OFF

as you move the headlight switch from the running light position to the headlight position you can faintly hear a relay buzz and click behind the blower motor switch.



ideas? i have never run into this before

hi art

thank you for pointing me to the tailgate.

upon removing the carpet on the tailgate it became apparent why odd illumination problems were happening. the tailgate harness through the hinges was pinched and shorting and the connections within the tailgate were wrongly spliced together causing power back feed.

all properly fixed

now, on to the the blower motor replacement..........:)

Hi Ted,

Glad to hear you're moving along. Phil pointed you to the tail gate. I asked you about the problem's history and noted "It is just a lot of guesswork without this basic history information."
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

I think I would look into the tailgate wiring back feeding a couple circuits.
That would make it difficult to isolate tied together issues.

It would be like working with "a clown" of a backseat mechanic, a gremlin, messing with you!

A power cross up back there turns on the defrost relay light. I have seen that happen with brake lights. It was random, but ever time it did it, it was after I used the brakes.

The headlight switch is new to me and the possible cross up in the taillights. Check bulb filaments to be in the right socket locations. An Owner's fingers might be the creative gremlin!

The possible powering up location might power going the headlights while the running lights circuit is on.

The staying on is a part of the defrost time out. Do the headlights go off after ten minutes or so, even if the headlight switch is on or off?

Good luck

Phil

"I think I would look into the tailgate wiring back feeding a couple circuits.
That would make it difficult to isolate tied together issues."

Phil, that was my first shoot from the hip thought as well. I have not dismissed it, but I do recall Ted has experience with tail gate wiring.

Also, I believe Ted works on turning around a lot of late model 240s and 940s so this car's history may be unknown to him in detail. In that case, the natural causes may be overshadowed by some of the man-made troubles we've seen, like someone plugging in the wrong sort of cube relay into the headlight relay socket for instance. It is just a lot of guesswork without this basic history information.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

"It's like a computer that won't boot unless you restart it twice, switch off the monitor, open the CD drive and stand on one foot. If you're a luser, you do all this shit every time you want to boot your box, but if you're a leet hax0r like you and me, you just figure out what's wrong with the computer and fix it.

You don't sacrifice a chicken twice a day, you 0wn the box, so you make it dance to your tune. " - Cory Doctorow

thanks art

the tailight harness's are indeed bad. no 3rd brake light or wiper.

i have resolved the headlight switch issue and cluster night light issue. both now work according to hoyle.

defrost still lights up when headlight switch is applied. thanks for pointing me to the tailgate.

"I have resolved the headlight switch issue and cluster night light issue. both now work according to Hoyle."

Please detail what you did to fix it as I have a very similar problem Thanks.

if you read the earlier post you know the connector had been overheated to the point the section housing the red/green wire from the fuse panel had partially melted the plastic of the connector exposing the metal contact clip.

after cleaning this up to ensure better contact with the relay i tested the small relay located in back of the center console which was connected to this damaged connector and found it wanting. after replacing that everything worked correctly.

history?
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Art Benstein near Baltimore

"He's the best mechanic in town." - 1992 Annemarie Powell said of General Colin L. Powell, a Volvodad