Help needed with car electrical fault.

Galaxy66

Galaxy66

Jeremy Beadle
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Ok guys I dread taking my car in to have an electrical fault traced, could be a bottomless pit as far as the bill goes.

I have a 2001 Honda Civic Aerodeck (estate) tow bar electrics fitted since new. Problem is, when I put my foot on the brakes my offside rear light goes off and the brake light only lights up on the nearside.

Where do I start checking:(:help:
 
Electrics :bang:

First thing to do is check/change the bulb - it could be as simple as that. If a new one has been recently fitted check that it is the correct type.

Do the lights on your trailer board (or whatever you normally tow) act in the same way or is it just the lights on the car itself?
 
Galaxy66 said:
Ok guys I dread taking my car in to have an electrical fault traced, could be a bottomless pit as far as the bill goes.

I have a 2001 Honda Civic Aerodeck (estate) tow bar electrics fitted since new. Problem is, when I put my foot on the brakes my offside rear light goes off and the brake light only lights up on the nearside.

Where do I start checking:(:help:
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check the earths on the rear light clusters, give them a nice rub down with some paper and use some contact cleaner on the connector. wouldnt take it in unless you have done this first!!
 
Thanks Adam, Flash and Justin, Dark now and got a few things to do before I can get it in the garage, Flash, the trailer was acting differently but can't recall what it was doing. This all came about yesterday when I had the trailer full of logs and my sn was following behind for safety and he noticed the fault.
 
One thing, does it act this way both with and without the trailerboard connected? Just in case the fault is actually at or in the connection to the trailer wiring.

Check the bulbs first, then the earth connection for the offending light. I seem to remember the MK3 Escort used to do a similar thing where when you pressed the brake pedal the indicators lit up, which was caused by a poor earth.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
One thing, does it act this way both with and without the trailerboard connected? Just in case the fault is actually at or in the connection to the trailer wiring.

Check the bulbs first, then the earth connection for the offending light. I seem to remember the MK3 Escort used to do a similar thing where when you pressed the brake pedal the indicators lit up, which was caused by a poor earth.
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Just spent 1/2 hour looking for my spare trailerboard amongst all the stuff I have so will connect it up shortly, unfortunately I am on my own just now so no one to tell me what is happening on the car :thinking:........mirrors:thinking:wedge with stick:thinking:.......
 
:( no earths to see on removing the light clusters bulbs ok and I can not find my w/shop manual or my mega:bang:

Same fault on the trailerboard.
 
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As already said, does sound like a faulty earth. There should be some kind of wiring loom going into the panel the bulbs are attached to, or individual wire clusters to each bulb, eaither way, give all the connections a good clean and check for any signs of corrosion. Ditto the bulb holders themselves, make sure they are all clean and free of corrosion.
 
Yv said:
As already said, does sound like a faulty earth. There should be some kind of wiring loom going into the panel the bulbs are attached to, or individual wire clusters to each bulb, eaither way, give all the connections a good clean and check for any signs of corrosion. Ditto the bulb holders themselves, make sure they are all clean and free of corrosion.
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Surely Renaults don't suffer electrical faults? :naughty: :exit:
 
If I do not find the fault tomorrow it's going to the dealers, I can't be having it the way it is, it is just too dangerous, and not that I have anything to hide but I do not want to run the risk of being stopped by the police and possibly receive a ticket.
 
Try an auto spark first. I had similar problem with a mazda that was a switched earth which wasnt functioning right.Cost a fiver as he let apprentice do it for practice.
 
I had the same sort of thing happen on an old Landy, a wire had shorted out to earth, so I'd try disconnecting the RH brake live wire and see if the same thing happens, if yes its not the cluster so you probably need to look at the connection for the tow electrics as it could have some corrosion in there. If it still does it you can be pretty sure its the cluster.
I think it takes longer to find a short than it does to wire in the trailer socket :lol:

Hope you get it fixed quickly though.
 
I was discussing it with my son on the phone, he asked me exactly what was happening and "googled " the problem on his laptop as I described it and came up with a list of remedies from various sites. One result from someone was to make sure the bendy pin in the bulb connector was making contact with the earth side of the bulb by prising it further out, as soon as I attempted this on the faulty side it immediately came away so I wedged silver foil between what was left and the bulb.

A result:):thumbs: I will now cancel the booking I had at the garage.

I never thought of googling the fault as described because to be honest I never knew google was so clever.

Thanks for all the advice folks,
 
Bad earth is the most common rear light fault going, basically when the current is flowing through the bulb and cannot get through the bad earth it finds the next shortest route which is usually through an adjacent bulb and it's circuitry hence the other lights coming on dimly.

Usually at the earth wire connection to the bulb holder, it can look burn't due to the heat build up, or the main earth contact to the body.

Occasionally somebody has fitted a single filament bulb in a twin filament bulbs place and the bulb itself shorts out the two feed contacts and has a similar effect.
 
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Forbiddenbiker said:
Lol,I don't know about anyone else ... But as far as I can tell about ten of us got it right here too!? .... :p ;)

:lol:
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You all did get it right you clever lot:thumbs: it was a bad earth connection. I had checked the cluster connections and gave them a clean with a cotton bud and they all looked ok to me owing to the lack of corrosion, or any burn marks, it did not look as if one was about to snap off when prised out

The cable ends to the cluster were all bonded in a plastic material so could not disconnect them and did not want to cut any wires.

I appreciate your efforts to help me and your advice was taken on board, thanks again..:thankyou::thankyou::thankyou:
 
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