Please Help!
My XJ40 1989 had a fallen third stop light, someone had done a shabby repair
trying to reatatch it, well I took it off cleaned it up and was ready to reinstall it
so I pluged it back in and WHAT!!! It won't work pluse now I have a warning that there is a circuit failure, also the RR turn signal won't work and no RR or high mount brake light, also the RR fog light is out too! left brake light works fine and all the running lights work too. Anyone know what happened here?
Like I said everything worked great till I unpluged the highmount stoplight??

 

Hi Jerry,

Without consulting the Electrical Guide, my first guess is that you blew the fuse in the circuit that supplies power to those lamps. If I recall correctly, the "Circuit Failure" message indicates a blown fuse in the early XJ40s. You might consult your owner's manual to see which fuse is related to the high-mount stop lamp to see if it's the same one that supplies the other lamps. If the fuse isn't blown let us know and we'll dig further into the electrical schematics for other possibilities.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thank You. I'll look and see what I can see?
I'm a novice at electronics but we will see.
I'll post my success or failure. Thanks again..

 

There are three fuseboxes in an XJ40, one under the center console arm rest lid, and one at the base of each A-pillar just ahead of the front doors and just above the footwell floor (use a quarter to turn the plastic retainer 1/4 turn to release the cover). The fuses should be labeled inside the fusebox covers and in the owner's manual.

 

Don. Sorry for the trouble, I should have looked there first. it was a fuse #7 10 amp pass side? Don't know how I shorted it out tho?
Thanks again.

 

Hi Jerry,

Glad you tracked down the problem. It's very easy to short something while removing or installing electrical parts where power is always present, even when the car is turned off. That's why it's good practice to disconnect the negative battery cable before doing any electrical work, even replacing things as seemingly simple as dome lamp bulbs, which are powered whenever the doors are open. We've all learned this lesson the hard way, so join the club!

Cheers,

Don