Light Switch Locked On - Help!

[Salixmaster]

I'm a DIYer - installed a new outdoor light today. In doing so as there are 4 wires in the cable and only 2 slots in the light, I must have wired it up incorrectly and the light switch inside used to turn the outdoor light on and off is now fixed to the on position and it won't click off.

I wired the light correctly and it works - but is permanently on!

How is do I fix it? Is it broken and need a new switch?

Why do do I have 4 cables in the wall and only 2 in the light itself? I have an outdoor light for the front of the house and it requires 3 wires connecting..

thanks

 

[telectrix]

TBH, you need an electrician to come and find the problem and sort it out. without test equipment you're fooked.

 

[Pete999]

TBH, you need an electrician to come and find the problem and sort it out. without test equipment you're fooked.

Agree with Tel get an Electrician in, shouldn't cost you that much, better than giving yourself a belt, surley.

 

[telectrix]

how long has his name been "surley"?

 

[Salixmaster]

Could you hazard a guess as to what it is?

When light switches like this get stuck on - what has happened? What has to be done to fix it?

 

[uksparks]

Did you change or do anything to the light switch? Or did you just change the light?

 

[Marvo]

If the switch is physically stuck in the on position then either you wired something up wrong and the fault managed to weld the switch contacts together internally or it's just physically broken. It's a bit too much of a coincidence that it happened whilst you were changing the fitting so I'm guessing it's a wiring fault which means you're going to need a sparky to help you figure out where.

 

[uksparks]

Just thinking out loud here, but he says there's 4 cables so quote a few conductors, bet you any money that he has pulled the switch out fiddled and then forced if back in and you k ow what some switches are like when they have too much pushing in the back, it either starts to make the switch look wonky or bugger it totally, it's unlikely it's welded itself together I'd of thought, the light is still on so its not blown anything so probably just forced back to the wall.

 

[Marvo]

You could be right, I didn't see how connecting the wires in the back of the switch would cause it to jam but as you say if the light is on it's probably not fault damage so scratch my previous post.

 

[uksparks]

When I say the switch I mean the rocker part of the faceplate the actual switch bit.

 

[Salixmaster]

Yeah light is on now -permanently!

Haven't touched the light switch at all - annoyingly it's a new build and they mastick round the switches and plug sockets so a pain in the arse to take it off the wall - so not touched it.

i did wire the external light incorrectly first then did it correctly (as you say 4 wires and only 2 needed so I just got it wrong) presumably that knackered the switch somehow...

dont mind getting a sparky out but tempted surely to just get a new switch and change it myself...

 

[uksparks]

Talking of light switches, I have been doing some work for someone recently and changing faceplates was one of them.

this pair, it was one of those sodding double single back boxes if you know what I mean, I ended up ripping it out and making the hole bigger and putting two normal boxes in just to gain literally a couple of mm so the stupid shiny surrounds would fit as they were literally s mats whisker too tight and wouldn't quite fit side my side in the old double single.

 

[uksparks]

Yeah light is on now -permanently!

Haven't touched the light switch at all - annoyingly it's a new build and they mastick round the switches and plug sockets so a pain in the arse to take it off the wall - so not touched it.

i did wire the external light incorrectly first then did it correctly (as you say 4 wires and only 2 needed so I just got it wrong) presumably that knackered the switch somehow...

dont mind getting a sparky out but tempted surely to just get a new switch and change it myself...

I fail to see how it's related as to why it's now jammed, maybe just coincidence.