Engine Earths, Blown lights, and MID Warnings!

[sev]

When I bought the car several weeks ago, one of the tail lights were out, and also the curtesy light was blown.

I replaced them, and it's been fine.  Last night, a warning got thrown up when I switched on the lights, and guess what, the headlight/tail light warning came up, and the curtesy lamp was blown as well!

Now the new thing is that the MID and the clocks go dim when I turn the lights on.

I'm also getting an OIL LACK warning - So I'm going to check levels tonight, but I'm sure it's OK, and the engine oil light does not come on.

So I have a sneaky suspicion that somethings shorting out.  What i'd like to do is go and clean up all the earths on the vehicle, all I need to do is find out where they are - haynes not too helpfull on that!

It's getting it's mother of god service this week, so i'll clean all contacts and check engine bay connections, but any other suggestions and i'd be very grateful.

[Andy B]

.....
Now the new thing is that the MID and the clocks go dim when I turn the lights on........

Is that not due to the thumb wheel on your light switch being turned down a bit?

[sev]

Andy, you're right! i must have dimmed the display!  however, the curtesy and tail light remains blown.  When I get the car on level ground tommorrow I will check the oil level, but I topped it up three weeks ago.

I have had a problem with cam cover gasket and have bought a new gasket kit and DVD from the shop, so perhaps it's the pressures building up in the cases? don't know.

[Andy B]

Andy, you're right! i must have dimmed the display!   ......

Guess I how I knew!  
Sorry I can't thelp with your other lighting electrical gremlin.
Oil lack coud very well be the level sensor's wiring in the sump. When I removed mine to swap onto the new sump pan, it was hard & brittle & one of the connections broke. A couple of mins with the soldering iron sorted mine out though.

[iainb]

Hi, Might be a good idea to check alternator output and bulb security, loose bulbs dont last long. As for the oil problem let me know as I have to topup every couple of weeks and I have done the cam cover gaskets,breathers and the aint a spot on the drive ?
Iainb

[TheBoy]

Its probably telling the truth, and a tail light is out, and the oil is around 1/2 on dipstick.

[sev]

TB, you're right, I know that the tail light is out, it's done it it before, and had it when I took ownership of it, which makes me thing that it's a bad earth connection somewhere.

As for the oil level, thanks, I was concerned that perphaps it indicated of a huge oil loss - i didn't realise it was sensitive to monitoring .5l drops, I thought it might be starvation to the engine!