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Extension wiring problem

cbeeb — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:25:15 GMT

My mother-in-law has a simple enough telephone set-up, or so I thought! When she didn't answer the phone, I went and checked, and found no dial tone on her phone, which is attached to the only extension in the house. I removed the extension from the master socket and tested a phone, which worked. The master socket has an orange wire in terminal B and a white wire in terminal A.

I went back to the extension socket and removed the front plate. As I did so, two stripped wires (orange and white, and white and orange) slipped from their terminals, and I wasn't sure which terminals. The two blue wires did not appear to have been stripped or connected.

So I looked at numerous online sites, and eventually decided that the two orange wires should be inserted in terminals 2 and 5. I did this (both ways round), but no dial tone resulted.

I am at a loss as to what I should do now. I don't have a circuit tester, but I don't believe that there has been any damage to the cable. Any suggestions?

Re: Extension wiring problem

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:29:12 GMT

@cbeeb

Who provides her phone service?

Re: Extension wiring problem

imjolly — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:35:36 GMT

the master socket should have the 2 extension wires also connected to terminals 2 &5

the connection to A & B is the incoming openreach connection

Re: Extension wiring problem

cbeeb — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:38:19 GMT

BT.

Re: Extension wiring problem

cbeeb — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:40:04 GMT

I don't understand. The first phone socket inside the house is wired as I describe. Is that not the master socket?

Re: Extension wiring problem

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:51:29 GMT

How did you remove the extension socket from the master, just remove the faceplate? If so then you'll see which colour wires are feeding the extension. They should be on the faceplate & use the same terminals 2 & 5 as the extension.

Note that you need to replace the faceplate on the master socket before the extension wiring is connected to the incoming wiring.

If you still need help then posting pics of both socket's wiring may help.

Re: Extension wiring problem

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:43:56 GMT

BT.

Then its more likely she has a fault on her phone line.

Report it online, or ring 0800 800 151.

Re: Extension wiring problem

cbeeb — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:46:16 GMT

Thanks for your reply. I guess I will have to go back and take some more pictures.

Re: Extension wiring problem

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:46:23 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe

He's already said a phone works in the master socket...

Re: Extension wiring problem

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 15:02:37 GMT

The design of master sockets varies a little but should be something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTWZs5ntiO8

The usual arrangement is the blue/white wires for the telephony (2 & 5) & the orange (3) is just used for the ringing, which she may need if it's an old phone. But that's not to say that someone hasn't done it the other way round at some point.

Re: Extension wiring problem

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:52:10 GMT

He's already said a phone works in the master socket...

I see now.

If it was a different phone, then it may be that her phone is faulty.

Re: Extension wiring problem

cbeeb — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 15:22:30 GMT

Thanks for sharing the video. In my mother-in-law's case, the extension is not wired into the back of the faceplate, but terminates in a small square plug which is inserted into a small gizmo with a flat plug which in turn is inserted into the faceplate (so when the extension is in place there is no socket for a phone, but that's not a problem).

There is definitely a good signal here, but not at the other end of the extension. Since I have neither skills nor testing tools, I guess I'm going to have to get an engineer in. Thanks everyone!

Re: Extension wiring problem

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 16:06:09 GMT

Ah I see, ye olde telephone extension kit! Then I expect it should indeed be the blue/whites that are connected to 2 & 5 in the extension socket. Easy enough to try as you'll do no harm or a complete replacement kit (with instructions!) would be less than a tenner.

Re: Extension wiring problem

iniltous — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 15:44:05 GMT

You hopefully realise that extension sockets and wiring are not Openreach or BT ( presumably it’s BT that are the service provider ) responsibility, so calling OR out( via BT ) could result in charges for the visit.

FWIW , often , if extension wiring has been run under door thresholds, rather than surface wiring on skirting etc, then the foot traffic over time damages the cable resulting in it breaking…as far a the wiring it ( obviously) doesn’t matter what colour wires used between the main and extension sockets are used as long as it’s the same at both ends

Re: Extension wiring problem

Devon_Dave — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 19:47:18 GMT

If an openreach engineer does come out (doubt it as line woukd test OK) They would only test up to the main socket, they would not work on any sockets after the main one. You would also get a bill due to no fault on line, customers own wiring.

Re: Extension wiring problem

cbeeb — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 11:18:07 GMT

Thanks again for all the advice. In the end I decided to fix it the hard way by lifting the carpets and replacing the wiring (wiring behind the faceplate of the master socket). This did the trick.