Tonight was a bit of a nightmare leaving from work. Turned on my headlights but they didn't pop up! Pitch black and a black interior didn't help matters when searching for the fuse. Went to grab my Maglite and only then realised some b*****d has whipped it out the car when I left it with the roof down!

I hadn't given it a thought to familiarise myself with the wiring...hindsight is a wonderful but useless talent I have!

Wound the lights up manually which got me home and then realised it might be something to do with the fact I have my centre console in bits in an attempt to fit a new stereo and I have unplugged the Hazard/pop up loom. Plugged it in when I got home and they are now O.K.

In the midst of checking the fuses, I blew the one for the interior lights. Now I'm home I can see there are a number of empty fuse sockets and God only knows where I pulled it from. I cannot see a diagram on the box cover so don't know which socket to put the new one in! Does anyone know? or have a diagram of the fuse layout? So far I have found 2 fuse boxes, one under the bonnet and one under the drivers footwell. Identification for both would be very much appreciated.

Also. How do I realign the headlamps now that I've wound them manually? (3/00)

US Haynes manual gives the following.

" ADJUSTMENT
1 Raise the headlights and disconnect the negative cable from the battery. (Plus caution re stereo code, alarm/immobiliser, etc.)
2 Pry the link on the retractor motor free from the arm on the headlight lid.
3 Lower the headlight lid by hand until it rests against the stopper (see illustrations). The lid should be flush with the body. If it isn't, raise the lid and adjust the stopper as necessary. *****
4 Reconnect the actuator link to the arm and reconnect the negative cable to the battery. Operate the headlights with the switch and check the adjustment again. " (Sorry about the lack of illustration. It's well worth getting a workshop manual for your own use.)

***** Note: I'm not sure if there should be something here about winding the manual raise/lower mechanism to bring the actuator link back into position so that it can be reconnected. If not then this adjustment procedure is presumably only for adjusting the lowered position, which would suggest that there is no need to adjust the raised position.

To check this, you could try the following:
- start with headlamps raised
- measure distance from top of headlamp lid down to bumper
- manually wind down by a small amount (say 10mm)
- turn headlamps off until they are dropped completely and then back on again
- measure distance from top of headlamp lid down to bumper as before
- if measurements are the same (to within a few mm?) you don't need to worry about adjustment

The wiring diagrams indicate that the headlamp actuator motors have a switch in that changes position depending on whether the lamps are up/down, therefore you should be ok, i.e. you should not require adjustment, and you should be ok doing the above test. However, all at your own risk I'm afraid... (3/00)

Hope someone can help me out here (either from memory or by having a peek next time they take their pride and joy out for a spin!). I have just noticed that there appears to be no cover over the fuseblock (down by the bonnet release on the drivers side) in my 10AE. It LOOKS like there SHOULD be a clip in plastic cover panel over this (about 2" x 4" in size?) to make it flush with the rest of the underdash area?

Before I pick up the phone to the dealer who sold me the car a few weeks ago and get him to send me a replacement, I thought I should check that there should be a cover there in the first place!!

The only reason I am suspicious is that I checked the car over pretty carefully when I bought it and am sure I would have noticed something like this missing. Also after agreeing to buy it the dealer fitted aircon and an alarm to the car for me, both of which I would imagine might require access to the fuse area and maybe someone just forgot to put the cover back... (1/01)