DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I'm trying to replace a 3 gang 2 way light switch in my hall. I've only replaced 1 gang switches before and this one is really confusing me. The instructions with the switch aren't much help.

The switch controls three lights, the porch light, hall light and the landing light. There is also an upstairs switch for the landing light. The old switch is probably there since the 80s and is labelled very differently to any new light switch.

In the below pictures you can see the wires that I have. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the colour of the tape, I just put that there so I could tell the wires apart. The brown wires are the live wires for the porch and hall light however. The top wires with the green/yellow tape are the other wires (not sure what these are called - neutral?) for the porch and hall. The two wires on the right are for the landing light switch.

There is also a looping wire. I'm not sure what this is for. I've managed to get the porch and hall lights working without trouble but I can only get the landing light switch working downstairs, the upstairs one doesn't work or else the light just flashes when you press it.

Any advice on what I should do here would be greatly appreciated.

Honestly?
Since you have no idea where each wire came from you have 2 choices.

1) Trial and error.

2) Get a competent person in to do the job for you.

I am not being rude / obnoxious, its just that there are no hard and fast rules as to which colours a light switch should be wired with, so there for it needs a person with a multi meter to find out which wire does what.

I can tell you one is live, three are switched live, two are strappers.