Interior Lighting fault? Espace RXE

[TonyG]

Some of the interior lights dont operate, front map reading light, rear boot light and two interior passenger lights, could this be a earth fault with these lights and how do i fix it. Do the lights have a common earth point and if so where is it on a 1992 espace.

[roy4matra]

Some of the interior lights dont operate, front map reading light, rear boot light and two interior passenger lights, could this be a earth fault with these lights and how do i fix it. Do the lights have a common earth point and if so where is it on a 1992 espace.

Without a wiring diagram Tony, it's difficult to diagnose this fault.  However, it's unlikely to be an earth problem unless it's more than one bad earth, since the front and rear lights would not use the same earth point.  The first thing to check is if you have a live feed up to the lamp.  If yes, then check the earth.  If no then you need to find out why.  You may simply have a blown fuse or bad connection, but you may need to do circuit continuity checks so you need the diagram first, otherwise how do you know which fuse, which circuit, or where the wiring goes, or where are the hidden connections, etc.  And hand books are not sufficient these days as the wiring has got too complex for those.  I've even seen handbooks with the wrong fuse number given for a circuit on Espace!

All wiring problems today, it is vital to have a wiring diagram otherwise you will waste lots of time, stripping possibly unnecessarily, and have to make guesses, and this can just lead to false judgements.  Or you need to be a skilled vehicle electrician that knows the particular vehicle he is working on, and can make up a diagram from the inspection of the wiring continuity checks, but that only works for the simpler electrical circuits and not electronic ones, and if there is anything hidden you know nothing about it will still catch you out!  You certainly won't know where all the hidden connections are, and these can often be the cause on older vehicles.  I have just done a repair on a 1990 Espace and the fault was a bad connection in a connector behind and under the N/S dashboard and to even get at it to do the checks, the whole of the interior front had to be dismantled and removed.  A two day job and I had the wiring diagram!

Roy