[Garyn156]

Hi folks,

I recently joined the club having bought a 94 200 cabrio (1.6). I had a 214sei back when they were nearly new and loved it. I’m thoroughly enjoying the cabrio so far especially with the weather.

I’ve had a few minor electrical issues since buying the car which was unused for a fairly long period.

First thing I noticed is that neither the interior light or boot light work. The clock clearly doesn’t have 12v to keep the time when the ignition is off (this is a recent change). Also the radio has no permanent 12v and the boot open dash warning light comes on dimly on occasions (again a very recent thing).

I’m assuming these are all going to likely be earth problems but I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction to find the various points to clean. I’ve cleaned the one on the slam panel and that actually seemed to make things worse as that coincided with the clock losing its memory. It did thought cure the issue with only 7v going to the radio from the ignition switch.

I also noticed that the clock illumination goes darker when then drivers door is open.

Thanks

Gary

[GTiJohn]

First place to check is the bootlid-to-body harness, as it bends double every time the boot is opened and closed. The wires also go brittle over time and this leads to shorts.

Peel back the rubber grommet and have a look inside.

[Garyn156]

Thank you.

I’ll give that a try at the weekend.

[GTiJohn]

You might find something like this...

[Stan Thomas]

I would most certainly agree it is probably an "earthing" problem, most likely eminating from the boot lid/area as the previous post suggests.

Next step, if you have volt meter check as many items as you can by first establishing the feed to them. (i.e. voltmeter from each terminal down to earth, then run a test wire from the other pole directly to earth.

[Garyn156]

Thanks both!

I will inspect / test and revert.

I’m at Roverfest at the weekend so might end up being one evening next week before I check.

[Stan Thomas]

I'm at RoverFest on Sunday if you want to have a chat. I have a red 420Gsi - R449AOT.

[Garyn156]

Just a short update.

I checked the wires to the boot lid and they are still fine. I cleaned all the earths in the boot area and initially I thought it was ok but the boot open light is still on intermittently.

Thanks for your time at Roverfest @Stan Thomas.

I’ll do some more tests and report back

[Roverlike]

You are sure that bulb contacts and light housing terminals for wires are free of corrosion and you have clean metal contact?

[Garyn156]

Do you mean for the actual boot light? If so yes it’s a brand new unit as the original was broken. There doesn’t seem to be any corrosion on any contacts anywhere. The only slightly dodgy one was the one on the slam panel. I’m trying to find the remaining earth points to clean up.