Help with two way switching problem

[evo666]

I have a customer that had a conversion in her house and had a bathroom added downstairs. 3 months later and now when you turn on either of the 2 way switchs in the kitchen the main fuse blows!
I went round to have a look but I am a little stumped. The Kitchen lights have all been replaced with downlights and re-wired before the new ceiling went up. I have checked all the fittings, lamps etc and all look fine. The only way I could get her lights (except the kitchen) to work was to dissconect the common from one of the kitchen switches. Then all the other lights downstairs wold work.
Any ideas on what other causes there are for this??

Cheers

roger

 

[ian.settle1]

Evo

Are you saying lights have been changed since your first visit 3 months ago.


Could be that who ever connected the lights in kitchen has put all the browns(reds) together and all the blues(blacks) together thus when operating either of the two way switches then it's live to neutral thus dead short.

 

[Shakey]

I have a customer that had a conversion in her house and had a bathroom added downstairs. 3 months later and now when you turn on either of the 2 way switchs in the kitchen the main fuse blows!
I went round to have a look but I am a little stumped. The Kitchen lights have all been replaced with downlights and re-wired before the new ceiling went up. I have checked all the fittings, lamps etc and all look fine. The only way I could get her lights (except the kitchen) to work was to dissconect the common from one of the kitchen switches. Then all the other lights downstairs wold work.
Any ideas on what other causes there are for this??

Cheers

roger

the 'three months later' bit apples that something has 'changed' t make the fuse pop, which rules out a wiring problem. Did one pretty much exactly the same a little while ago, the internal mechanism of one of the switches had broken down, and was shorting between the switch contacts and the metal face plate of the switch. By disconnecting the common, you would be iolating the problem.

Try a switch change!

 

[MacSparky]

IR test on strappers?

 

[evo666]

the 'three months later' bit apples that something has 'changed' t make the fuse pop, which rules out a wiring problem. Did one pretty much exactly the same a little while ago, the internal mechanism of one of the switches had broken down, and was shorting between the switch contacts and the metal face plate of the switch. By disconnecting the common, you would be iolating the problem.

Try a switch change!

That was the first thing I did.
The '3 months later' was a crap way of putting it . All has been working OK for 3 months and now it has just started to blow the fuse, nothing has been changed apart from 2 outside lights that I changed. All are OK and working fine.

 

[Grae79]

anything been nailed/screwed to the walls recently?

 

[wayne]

went to look at an house where the down stairs lights were tripping . they had had an extension done recently ,and a problamatic fitting elsewhere in the house but other than that no changes
quick test on the db showed a short ,so i start isolating the part of the circuit at fault
it needed an inquisitive sod like me to find the fault!!
was in the back garden making sure the external lights wired from the extension were ok when i noticed a wire up on the wall???
turns out 4 YEARS ago somebody had taken down an outside light and just taped up the wires over the years ,add a bit of rain bit of nuiscance tripping ....touchdown!!
screwed a jb over it , silicon, terminated it into choc block ,problem solved
good luck with yours

 

[Shakey]

Come to think of it i done one a few months back

MCB was throwing, they SWORE they had done nothing, no new shelves up, no nails up for pictures etc etc

Traced IR fault to lighting circuit, outside. Found unprotected 1.5mm flat twin & E high up on the back wall feeding PIR light.

Bl@*dy window cleaner had only gone and leaned his ladder directly on it, and crushed/split it. Phase /earth touching. Job done

worth a bloomin good visual on jobs like this!!!

 

[rumrunner]

check for melted conector block in downlighter,or something daft like that ,then split the circuit up and use the good old megger ,good luck

 

[evo666]

Thanks I will let you know what happens