4 replies to this topic

[chipmongrel360]

I'm beginning to get fairly sick of this, for the past month I've been chasing electrical problems around my car, I must have insulted it in some way :/

My current problem is the rear lights, when they are lit up at night, are very nearly the same brightness as the brake lights I.e. the light does not brighten very much when under braking. The difference is so slight that you need to be really looking for change in brightness between the two to even see it...obviously this is dangorous to an extent, I don't want someone going into the back of me because they don't see my brake lights.

Any suggestions as to why this might be happening? I'm thinking either the rear lights are receiving too much power or the brake lights are getting too little...

Cheers, Chris

[Alex_B]

may be the bulbs, they are twin filament and the brake one runs at a higher currant (electrical terms arnt my forte so if i am wrong i do apologise) and so it may be the wrong lamp and they are actually getting the same power?

or they are round the wrong way, they only go in one way properly and so take them out turn them 180 degrees and then try?

[hunterg30]

check the wiring to the stop and tail lights just incase you have reversed the wiring to them.also check that the
bulbs are pushed in the right way round the lugs on the side of the bulb should determin which way but they can
sometimes be pushed in wrong

[greenwheels]

Check the earth connections to the body. If the current can't fight it's way past the rusty connection it'll find all sorts of routes to another earth.

[tiger99]

All of the above are valid, but there is one simple thing to check. Brake lights only, then rear lights only. If the rears alone are brighter, the bulbs or wires are definitely reversed.

To check for an earth fault, apply brake lights only and observe the sidelights. Do they glow at least dimly? If so, the rear earth is defective. Apply indicators only, do any other lights glow?

If fixing the earths, it is good practice to take each light unit to its own local earth bolt, instead of the one common point.