Kia Sportage Leccy Gremlins

[warren t claim]

Right, the Punto is off to pastures new and I've taken a tidy Kia Sportage in part ex plus cash my way. All good but the Kia has a lighting problem, namely the rear lights don't work and neither do the sidelights and dashboard illumination. To drive the Kia at night you have to turn the rear fogs on as well as the headlights! Not exactly ideal but at least the brakelights work ok.

 

Any ideas as to what's causing this problem?

[Albert Ross]

Faulty switch or illumination relay? Because all of the affected cricuits are sidelights, this is why I suspect it. I just fixed a Matiz with the same issue. I have no idea what I did to make them work though. The suggestion from the dealers was the ignition switch "black box"... it wasn't. Remove the headlight switch and check for resistance across the releveant terminals by turning the switch on and off and checking for changes. It should be a really high figure compared to the nothing you're getting.

[warren t claim]

Faulty switch or illumination relay? Because all of the affected cricuits are sidelights, this is why I suspect it. I just fixed a Matiz with the same issue. I have no idea what I did to make them work though. The suggestion from the dealers was the ignition switch "black box"... it wasn't. Remove the headlight switch and check for resistance across the releveant terminals by turning the switch on and off and checking for changes. It should be a really high figure compared to the nothing you're getting.

 

The previous owner did say that the last time this happened he fixed it by blowing the switch clean with compressed air.

[Micrashed]

This used to happen with one of my BX's and it was the headlight switch which was at fault - worn connections.