<x-flowed> Daniel Baum wrote:
The oil and generator lights are grounded when the engine is not running. This makes them light up when the ignition is on. The high beam and turn signal indicators are not grounded, so they will not come on. The high beam indicator also has a regular negative ground, and get's it positive power directly from the bulb (well, actually the fuse).This reminds me of another question that I have been meaning to ask: When you turn on the ignition, how many of the warning lights are supposed to come on? At the moment only the generator and oil lights come on. The other lights are now wired up (except the blue main beam light) and I was expecting them to come on as well, like on all of the other cars that I have driven.
Since you mention newer cars, they may have some sort of timer relay causing all idiot lights to come on for a few seconds when you turn on the ignition. The main reason for this feature is to see that all bulbs are working properly.
Yes, that is the way it is supposed to be. There is a connection on the headlight switch marked 57 (DIN numbers). 57 is only has power in the parking light position, some European markets (France and Italy, I believe) has/had to ahve the parking light indicator on the dashboard as a part of their light regulations. When you pull the head light switchout to #2 position, 57 goes out again, making your parking light indicator go out.The green light lights up when I pull the headlight switch out one stage and then turns off when I pull it out again. The indicator lights work (both together) when I turn on the indicators or the hazard warning lights. Is this right?
If you have a spare light switch you can see how this happens with a multimeter between connectors 30 (battery), 57 (parking indicator), 58 (parking lights), 58a (instrument lights) and 56 (head lights). measuring the resistance, you can see how the resistance increases as you turn the instrument lights down, causing the bulbs to get less voltage.
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