Grrrrrrrr - Police Mechanics - Grrrrrrrr

[Ian-Highlander]

Since I got my "ex Police" SXi a few weeks ago, I've been doing pretty much nothing else but work on it to bring the interior up to scratch and get a few bits that didn't work working again.

£600 odd of plastic parts replaced, loads of extraneous wiring that wasn't connected to anything removed (just found a microphone in the vent hole area of the alarm sensors that wasn't connected to anything last night).

But the one thing that's been really bugging me being the slightly OCD old git I am was that the anti dazzle mirror and indirect night lighting hasn't worked since I've had the car, although it's fitted as standard. I've checked everything, compared it to my other Vectra, checked the wiring in the boot was connected correctly, had half the roof lining down in order to check the ribbon cable wasn't damaged in anyway at all and still not found out why it wasn't working.

My car is booked in at the dealers for Monday anyway to have the rear electric windows enabled on Tech2 so I was beginning to see a big bill appearing when I brought this up as well, as I'd have to get it fixed, no point in having it if it don't work.

Anyway, last night, chucking it down with rain and once again, I'm inside the car, interior light unit down, tracing wiring, checking connections. When it suddenly hit me...

The only part I hadn't checked in the hours I've spent trying to get this working was the other end of the cable. They wouldn't have unplugged it would they, of course not, that would be silly...

Anyway, the old addage, once you've investigated everything that's possible, whatever's left however impossible is probably the culprit. So I pulled off the covers on the rear of the mirror and a multiplug dangled free not connected to anything at all, plugged it back into the mirror housing and my damn mirror works as it should. Best guess, my car was apparently a surveillance car so I'm guessing they didn't want any internal lighting working which I can kind of understand, but gggggrrrrrrrrrrr hours and hours and hours trying to fix what eventually was fixed in 20 seconds.

Grrr, damn, bleepy sweary words that I'm not allowed to say on here.

Sorry, had to just get that out of my system, happy now, yay my light/mirror works.

[Vaux-Man-G]

Glad to hear you got it sorted in the end mate.

I would assume that with ex-cop cars, they simply want to just get all thier kit aut f*ck the rest off. As long as they get there bits they dont gove a t0ss!

Its always the easiest of problems to fix that take the longest to diagnose!

Well done!....Next job?

[corman]

bet that was a moment if ever there was one

[glenboy]

Its all sorted thats what matters,i would've checked that 1st though.......

[Ian-Highlander]

Its all sorted thats what matters,i would've checked that 1st though.......

Yeah yeah, I know, I know...

[steve1975l]

Also they like to see who is behind and the easiest way is putting tape over the sensor but unplugging it best. Yep always the obvious first, at least it's working now Ian.

[rorycarz]

i remember removing all the police cables for an old omega ..

[kns]

ex police car your brave .we rag them up this end of the country i would'nt touch one with a barge pole.

[John C S]

Since I got my "ex Police" SXi a few weeks ago, I've been doing pretty much nothing else but work on it to bring the interior up to scratch and get a few bits that didn't work working again.

£600 odd of plastic parts replaced, loads of extraneous wiring that wasn't connected to anything removed (just found a microphone in the vent hole area of the alarm sensors that wasn't connected to anything last night).

But the one thing that's been really bugging me being the slightly OCD old git I am was that the anti dazzle mirror and indirect night lighting hasn't worked since I've had the car, although it's fitted as standard. I've checked everything, compared it to my other Vectra, checked the wiring in the boot was connected correctly, had half the roof lining down in order to check the ribbon cable wasn't damaged in anyway at all and still not found out why it wasn't working.

My car is booked in at the dealers for Monday anyway to have the rear electric windows enabled on Tech2 so I was beginning to see a big bill appearing when I brought this up as well, as I'd have to get it fixed, no point in having it if it don't work.

Anyway, last night, chucking it down with rain and once again, I'm inside the car, interior light unit down, tracing wiring, checking connections. When it suddenly hit me...

The only part I hadn't checked in the hours I've spent trying to get this working was the other end of the cable. They wouldn't have unplugged it would they, of course not, that would be silly...

Anyway, the old addage, once you've investigated everything that's possible, whatever's left however impossible is probably the culprit. So I pulled off the covers on the rear of the mirror and a multiplug dangled free not connected to anything at all, plugged it back into the mirror housing and my damn mirror works as it should. Best guess, my car was apparently a surveillance car so I'm guessing they didn't want any internal lighting working which I can kind of understand, but gggggrrrrrrrrrrr hours and hours and hours trying to fix what eventually was fixed in 20 seconds.

Grrr, damn, bleepy sweary words that I'm not allowed to say on here.

Sorry, had to just get that out of my system, happy now, yay my light/mirror works.

Sometimes we get so involved in thinking we've had a catastrophic electronics failure that we overlook the obvious.

It reminds me of a situation we had with our van. The delivery driver said that the LH brake light wasn't working and he'd checked the bulb and it was fine. He even substituted the bulb for one out of his own car that he knew worked. He assumed a problem with the wiring loom so the vehicle was booked in to an auto electrician.

We got the van back with a working brake light. Problem fixed , but the auto-electrician said there was no fault. We were baffled until he explained that the brake light was a stand alone single filament bulb and that bulb was defective. The twin filament bulb (normally the stop light and rear light) was in fact rear foglamp and rear light in our van.

So if any of the guys on the forum drive a Sevel manufactured panel van ( Fiat Ducato, Citroen Relay or Peugeot Boxer), bear this in mind when you have a stop light fail!!!!!