Check out the below picture Now this is the wiring for the lights in the rear of my van. It used to be wired up to a strip light which had a built in on/off switch. I'm now going to put LEDs in but my question is....... The black wire is the live feed but what is the red wire??? Sorry for being dim
Is that the olympic torch in the background? I'd guess one is the live and the other is the earth going to the chassis. Like you say it isn't standard wiring. Put a multimeter between them - see what happens.
Black is normally switched live and red is constant live, if it is original wiring. Best way to tell is with a multimeter.
I'd be more worried about her in the bottom right of the picture, carrying a naked flame' torch round without PPE on
Right I'm mega confused now. The red wire appears to do nothing. The black wire has a live feed when the front doors are shut but when they are open and front interior light on, no power to the rear!!
From memory, based on Gusbus tangle of snakes, the rear light works from the sliding door switch (same style switch as the cab doors have fitted) assuming your has one, our westy doesnt!
Do a continuity check on the red wire. It may be an earth. The black sounds like its part of the front lighting circuit and as poptop said it might be a dodgy connection somewhere.
It sounds and looks like that wire is an extra PO addition. If it is like my light it is looped off the front interior light as this is the nearest live feed to the rear compartment. Have you had a peek in your cab light to see if the other end of the black and red wire ends up there.
Cheers for your help guys, I couldn't trace the two wires back to the cab light, so I've decided to run a new live feed off the cab live and run that into the back.
Have you got an interior light switch on your dash?? might've been earthed through to that if you have...
You might want to check whether they run back to the original VW rear interior light position - in the roof above the windows on the opposite side to the sliding door. Maybe someone's bodged up some wiring from there.
