Hello gentlemen, In need of some assistance, it would appear that my engine compartment lights are illuminated with the engine lid closed and when I open it, they turn off, not sure if it's related but also, when driving if I use the right turn signal and apply the brake at the same time the turn signal stops working, when I let go of the brake, it continues working? Any help would be much appreciated!
What year/version TR? (Please put F model, year and version in your FChat Profile.) On the weirdness scale of 1 to 10 -- you've got an 11 . The engine compartment lights should only come "on" when the exterior running lights are "on" and the engine bonnet is open. When you say "it would appear that my engine compartment lights are illuminated with the engine lid closed" -- is that happening when the exterior running lights are "off"? Also, when you say: "...when driving if I use the right turn signal and apply the brake at the same time the turn signal stops working, when I let go of the brake, it continues working..." -- are you saying that the left turn signal does not do this and works fine?
The the engine compartment lights are illuminated with the engine lid closed and the exterior running lights on, if I turn the exterior lights off, they turn off. The left signal works with no issues, just the right side.
That's at least a little better. So the weirdness is with exterior running lights "on", the logic of the engine compartment lights seems backwards: bonnet down = engine compartment lights "on" bonnet up = engine compartment lights "off" Is that correct? I have no explanation for how that is even possible. What year/version TR? Best I can do is get you a link for the corresponding (or near corresponding) wiring diagram. This is also still inexplicable. The turn signal switch is what determines whether the LH side or RH side turn signals operate -- everything upstream is shared by both sides and has little association to the brake lights. Did the car's turn signals previously work properly and this problem just appeared, or are you trying to fix a TR that was previously molested by person(s) unknown and now you are trying to sort it out?
Yes, that’s what I’m seeing, with the running lights on, the engine compartment lights behave backwards: • Bonnet down = lights ON • Bonnet up = lights OFF No idea how that’s even possible. It’s a 1990 Canadian spec car, so a wiring diagram for that year would help. As for the turn signals, agreed, it doesn’t make sense. The switch should control left/right, and upstream is shared. The problem just appeared, I was thinking it could be a faulty brake light bulb?
One thing I forgot to add regrading the turn signals: with the key on, engine off, and exterior lights on, they work fine. The weirdness only starts once the engine is running.
Also, the interior light fuse just started popping. With the headlights on and the engine compartment lid open, engine compartment lights remain off, as soon as I close the engine compartment, the lights turned on for a second and the interior light fuse, pops?
Could it be that one of your bulbs is shorted from your exterior light circuit to the brake circuit which then sends electricity up to the third brake light which crosses over by the supports of the hood
I have the power supply for the third brake completely unplugged, and it still does it. I managed to get the engine compartment lid lights functioning as intended, the switch was bad. Just opened the switch up and cleaned the contacts, now the lights work with the engine lid open and when I press on the switch by hand the lights turn off, but still having the same issue, as soon as close the lid the interior light fuse pops?
Is this fuse #13 (7.5A)? If it is fuse #13, try unplugging the yellow wires connected to the bottom of the RH engine bonnet gas spring and see if the problem goes away. If it does go away = the body of the RH gas spring is probably (wrongly) contacting the engine bonnet in the down position. (If you do a search using "wear scar" posted by myself, you should get some prior threads about this issue.)
Then you should see a "wear scar" on the body of the RH gas spring where it is (wrongly) contacting the engine bonnet in the down position -- either need to bend the lower RH gas spring mount or add some sort of insulation. (I edited my post above to including searching information about this.)
Very good! It is a bit of a time bomb that the factory could never detect as it takes a little while to wear thru the coatings on the engine bonnet and gas spring body. If you ever find out what is causing that turn signal weirdness, please let us know as that is some total Gremlin witchcraft . In ~30 years on FList and FChat, I can't recall anyone reporting a similar symptom. My only thought is that it might be related to a sort of high resistance in the LH turn signal switch contacts (not super high, but high enough that when the brake lights are drawing a bunch of current, and the voltage droops a little, the Flasher stops working). You might try squirting some contact cleaner in thru the turn signal switch stalk opening (while having the stalk in various positions) in the hope that some will get on the turn signal switch contacts as you work the stalk on-off-on-off-etc.-- just a thought...
The turn signal issue has also been solved, I bent in the driver side gas strut mount as well, this is the strut where the 3rd brake light gets its power from. I’m pretty sure this was grounding out as well and when I hit the brakes, it was causing an issue, but the fuse didn’t pop for some reason. Anyways, problem solved right after I bent the mount in a bit. Thanks again, Steve, much appreciated!!
