DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi, thx in advance if u can help

I've changed all other light switches in the house with no prob but this one I cant work out, I'm wondering if the new switch is faulty?

The socket is in the hall by the front door and has 2 switches. The left switch controls the light on the wall outside the front door, the right switch controls the hall light. By the back door a socket, also in the hall has 2 switches and the left switch also controls the hall light (I changed this switch previously and connected every wire as before and everything was working fine). Back to the prob switch by the front door... when i took it off several wires were loose/came out and not sure where they went. I've tried just about every combination but cant get it working.

My new socket has 2 x com (obv for the loop/red wires?) and 2 x L1 and 2 x L2.
Wires are 2 x red, 1 blue, 1 black and 1 yellow.

I can get some of the lights to work some of the time but not all working as they were.

thx again

HI jason, your 2 gang sw uses as follows,
one half, com= red from same cable as blk, blk goes to L1 opposite red, that should make your outside light work!
the 3 core cable r,y,blu is the 2 way from other sw at other end of hall.
in the far sw. see what colour wire is in C, whatever it is (say yellow ) must go in Com of your sw, the other 2 cores go 1 in L1 & 1 in L2 either way round
regards SPARX

Thanks for the reply.

When u say "in the far switch, see whatever is in C" i presume u mean Com. Well the only wire in the Com on the far switch is red, one in in each. I should have explained that the far switch was also a 2 gang. I'm now wondering if the back door switch is the one that is wired wrong.

Anyways, these are all the facts. The switches are plastic so havent bothered mentioning the earth wires. Still cant get them to work properly, think I'm going to have to get someone to come out and do it.

Thanks for any help.


[u]By the front door[/u]
2 large wires coming from the wall.
1 contains a Black and a Red wire.
1 contains a Red, a Yellow and a Blue wire.

The Switch has 2 switches, the left controls the light outside and the right controls the hall light.

The back of the switch looks like this (ignore the commas, they're just for spacing) -

,,,,,,,O,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,O,,,,,,,,
,,,,,Com,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,Com,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,O,,,,,,O,,,,,,/,,,,,O,,,,,,,,,O,,
1way,,2way,,,/,,,1way,,,,2way



[u]By the back door[/u]
3 large wires coming from the wall.
1 contains a Black and a Red wire.
1 contains a Red, a Yellow and a Blue wire.
1 contains a Red, a Yellow and a Blue wire.

The Switch has 2 switches, the left controls the hall light and the right controls the landing light upstairs (the switch on the landing is just a single switch).

The back of the switch looks like this (ignore the commas, they're just for spacing) -

,,,,,,,O,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,O,,,,,,,,
,,,,,Com,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,Com,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,O,,,,,,O,,,,,,/,,,,,O,,,,,,,,,O,,
1way,,2way,,,/,,,1way,,,,2way


So the hall light is contolled by 2 switches, 1 by the front door and 1 by the back door and the landing light is controlled by 2 switches, 1 by the back door and 1 on the landing.

Thanks again,

Jason

Hi Jason, this is a doddle for a leckie but difficult to do via keyboard!!!
you have 2 standard 2 way circuits plus 1 X 1 way for outside light.
Should not take more than an hours labour to do so budget for £45.00 for first hour, any additional time should be @ around £30/hr.
I think it would be best to get someone in, not easy DIY
regards SPARX