2 way lighting switch, re-wiring error.

Scottish_Dorset

Have changed all the switches, etc in our house from the standard white plastic to metal ones. Unfortunately, my husband has had a confusion with the last switch. It is two switches that are connected to the lights at the top and bottom of the stairs, so two lights. You can switch them on and off at the bottom or top of the stairs. He took the switch off, got a not very clear picture and then got muddled when putting the new switch on. The new switch has the same connectors eg: coms, L1 and L2, but one side is upside down in comparison to the old one which had both coms at the top and L1 and L2 at the bottom. He couldn't get it to work and so has put the old switch back on, and now that is not working properly.

The light switches after this switch, bedroom and bathroom, won't work unless the upstairs light switch is on. I'm guessing he has put a feed or circuit something in the wrong place? The wires are:

2 x black with a piece of brown sleeve

2 x grey with a piece of brown sleeve

2 x light brown, which are in the coms

3 x brown wires, which maybe where the error is

I think we have put the black, grey and light brown wires back into the correct place. I have attached a picture of how it was before he undid anything! Sadly not very clear at the bottom. We live in a modern house so we are able to isolate the circuit trip when working on it. It is frustrating as once we have the switches working as they were before we started, we can take better pictures and then replace it with the new switch. Hope that makes sense.

Can anyone advise how we sort this problem out? Many thanks.

SiliconChip

"Can anyone advise how we sort this problem out?"

Get an electrician would be my suggestion.

mta999

I agree with the above comment

Be very careful - you might be switching the live circuit to somewhere that you don't want it switched to, particularly as you now have metal face plates

sheenas

The pictures are not clear enough to really help. The seams a log going on with those earths for example. I would put a meter on that now to ensure I understand what was connected where. Best solution is an electrician as others have said?

Cornucopia

You would need to understand how two-way switching works, and then how it has been implemented in your property.

The issue with other lights not working properly is caused by the ongoing live connection being wrongly connected into the two-way switching.

I'd remove the spare screws from the back of the switch.

Or call an electrician.

Exodi

You might get better answers posting this in the "In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving" board rather than "Techie Stuff" (which is usually computer or electronics hardware/software related, as opposed to electrical infrastructure).

Reported to be moved.

For my 2c, I would recommend an electrician - I'm somewhat nervous about a novice DIY-er wiring up metal faceplates, unsure of what's live or not, particularly as I can see all the earths have been wago'd at the back of the box and it's not clear whether the new faceplate has been earthed.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656539/2-way-lighting-switch-re-wiring-error

Can anyone advise how we sort this problem out? Many thanks.

+1 for calling in an electrician. Anyone here can only guess the correct arrangement by assuming the original installation followed a particular method. We don't know what the last electrician actually did. So it needs someone hands-on with a test meter to make sure the connections are all re-done correctly.

Connecting the wires up randomly to test different combinations until it works is dangerous.

Also the way the CPC's ('earths') have been done looks less than ideal, and as Exodi suggests, this isn't something you want to take a risk on when using metal fittings.

TELLIT01

Get an electrician in to sort it out.