Originally Posted by 5teve 
quick question, whenever i alter the white balance in light room from as shot to anything else light sunlight, auto etc etc it gives the shots a very yellow / orange cast..
is this normal?
Well, what kind of light was it, really? If it really was yellow/orange (eg, ordinary light bulbs), then yes, lying to your PP software and telling it you shot under sunlight will cause it to display as very yellow orange. If you want your software to *remove* the yellow/orange cast, you need to tell your software that the light really *was* yellow/orange, either by selection the Tungsten / Incandescent preset or adjusting the sliders yourself to select a temperature in that range.
In short, it sounds like you are thinking of WB setting as telling the software what color you light to look like, but that's *not* how it works. The WB settings is so you can tell the software color the light actually *is*, so the software can *remove* that color cast.