Outside lights not working as they should

[sfothersgill]

Hi - I replaced 4 outside lights as 2 were not working correctly. I think the problem may be wiring, but not sure what could be wrong.

2 lights (one at the front and 1 at the rear of the house) work fine when switched on. However, of the 2 side lights, only 1 will work at a time. Both lights need to have bulbs in or neither will work. They operate off the same light switch as the front and back lights. There is only the single light switch.

To complicate things more, all lights have PIR's. It seems that of the 2 side lights, the first that picks up motion is the first to turn on as expected. However, if the 2nd light does turn on due to motion, it only lights up very faintly, if at all.

Any ideas how this may be wired up or what the fault could be?

There are no surface wires - they all go into the wall cavity then I assume into floor boards.

Thanks!

 

[monkeyelectric]

Sounds like there's a loose connection or two there, have they just been installed or have they been working before?

 

[sfothersgill]

I have replaced all the lights, thinking that the old ones which were there when we bought the house were faulty.

There are no lose wires in the new light fittings.

 

[monkeyelectric]

Do you know how the wires run as it seems strange that the front and back work and the sides are faulty, do they work ok if you disconnect the pir and just wire them straight to the switch?

 

[ian.settle1]

Hi - I replaced 4 outside lights as 2 were not working correctly. I think the problem may be wiring, but not sure what could be wrong.

2 lights (one at the front and 1 at the rear of the house) work fine when switched on. However, of the 2 side lights, only 1 will work at a time. Both lights need to have bulbs in or neither will work. They operate off the same light switch as the front and back lights. There is only the single light switch.

To complicate things more, all lights have PIR's. It seems that of the 2 side lights, the first that picks up motion is the first to turn on as expected. However, if the 2nd light does turn on due to motion, it only lights up very faintly, if at all.

Any ideas how this may be wired up or what the fault could be?

There are no surface wires - they all go into the wall cavity then I assume into floor boards.

Thanks!

Remove side fittings and check if you have 230v at each fitting as you should have a live and neutral at each, could be that they have been wired in series.

 

[sfothersgill]

Without the PIR's only 1 light would work at the side.

I already checked the voltage drop across each light fitting - they all measure 240V.

I thought that maybe the side lights were wired in serial but surely both lights would come on, if not at full brightness????