The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[FSARoyster]

Morning folks,

The wife took the Pajero for its MOT on Thursday and it failed on the following...

Rear fog lamp adversely affected by the operation of another lamp (main beam) (1.3.2f)

Basically, if you switch the rear fog light on, the light in the switch also comes on, but if you then flick the full beams on, the rear fog light goes out, along with the light on the switch.

As it's an import the rear fog and switch are all after market.

Is it fairly easy to solve?  I'm going to take a look at the wiring behind the rear fog light switch later, in hope that there's some wire heading off to the full beam/stalk which I can just disconnect, but at the same time this might stop the fog and switch working all together.

Any thoughts guys?

Thanks again

Rog

[Google]

[anyoldiron]

Check MOT rules, it may be it's supposed to work like that, after all you don't need rear fog lights if you can use main beam.

[FSARoyster]

Cheers.  This seems to be what people think online, admittedly the majority of replies are fairly old, so things might have changed.  It certainly seems deliberate.  I'll maybe try ringing another garage and see what they say.  But don't really want to pay for another MOT if I can just take this back and argue the toss.

Electrics aren't much fun, so ideally I don't want to re-wire stuff just to get tripped up again in the future.

Thanks again

Rog

[Simon_W]

Might be worth reading this:  http://www.ukmot.com/manual/1.3/Rear-Fog-Lamps

The test is done with dipped headlamps (and ignition on) but it also states that the rear fog lamp should not be not adversely affected by the operation of any other lamp.

I can't believe that it's intentional that the rear fog goes off on headlight main beam, although it would be illogical in most circumstances to use them together.

On my Challenger the fog lamps remain illuminated on main beam.

[Missing Lincs]

Sometimes, unless you know exactly what's been wired before it's as easy to start again with after fit wiring.

MOT considerations apart, the easiest way to wire a rear fog light is using a supply from the sidelight circuit, through the foglight switch to a relay.

The control circuit, ie the supply from the switch activates the relay coil and the contacts supply the rear foglight using a feed from the ignition supply.

It would help to know what year your Paj is?

[peteinchad]

I am now confused!!

I wired mine to come on only when dipped beam is on as it says in the link above.

[FSARoyster]

Evening folks,

Thanks for all the responses.

It's a 1995 SWB 2.8 Diesel.

Pete - Are you saying yours works the same as mine?  I can't help but think nothing has gone wrong, i.e. short circuit or whatever, I would bet it has always been like this, and it passed last time.

I think what's not helped is that I put it in knowing I still had my sidelight issue (all 4 side lights aren't working) and this effectively brought more attention to the lights than normal.  I was more interested in finding out if anything else needed fixing, thinking I'd be able to sort the lights in the meantime :/

I've sorted the sidelights today, turns out my shoddy soldering hadn't held, so that's now been redone.

So, can you give me a bit more detail (simplified) how I can sort this fog light to be completely controlled by just the switch?

Below's a pic of the existing wiring, is it likely I can make a tweak to get this fixed?

For the record, there's 2 black wires going into one connector, not totally clear in the pic.



Thanks again

Rog

[peteinchad]

Test the wires on the back of the switch with a voltmeter or test lamp.

Find the wire that is live when the lights are on dipped beam and remove it from the switch and tape it up.

Then run a new wire from the ignition switch (that is live in the accessory position) and connect it to the switch terminal that you took the wire of.

Technically it is not correct as the fog light will be able to be switched on when the lights are off - which they may fail it on.

I think the MOT bloke is wrong - I would take him  print out of the bit from the above link and see what he says.

[FSARoyster]

Morning folks,

Cheers for the info Pete.  I'm not sure what to do to be totally honest.  On one hand I think my lights are working as they should, on the other it sounds like they need amending.

Below I've tried to clear up why I think my truck failed, but can also see how it could also pass this test.  For a start there are two tests, and mine failed the second...



I rang up a different garage yesterday to see what their take on it was, and they said your fog light needs to stay on whilst every other light is tested, which includes your full/main beams.

Thanks again

Rog

[FSARoyster]

[peteinchad]

Find the red wire on the tail lamp relay in the engine compartment - run a wire from that to the wire that is feeding power to your switch (remove the existing wire).

That will give power to the switch while the tail lights are on.

OR

find the green/white wire under the dash - that feeds the front side lights - take a wire from that to your switch and that will feed 12V to your switch.

In both cases check that the wire you are going to take power from is live only when the lights are on. It doesn't solve the problem of the fog lamp being on only when the ignition is turned on - you will need a relay for that.

.... unless anyone else has a simpler solution of course.

[Simon_W]

[Missing Lincs]

[Simon_W]

[FSARoyster]

Cheers guys.  So it sounds like tapping into the side lights is a good bet.  Mainly as this option sounds like the shortest wire run, plus I think the sides have the alarm if left on.

Thanks again

Rog