Bad Earth/corrosion?!

[Ianbill172]

Hi all,

On my 182, whenever i hit the brake, put in reverse, use left hand side indicator or a combination of all or some, i get the rear fog light symbol lit up on my dash. I had this issue previously which seemed to go away over the summer but now the winter and cold weather is back, its happening again. Is it possible to change the wiring going to the rear lights as i think they might have a bad earth or be corroded quite badly! Has anybody else has this issue?

 

[H182]

I've never had it, but heard of this issue before. Think people usually just take out the rear light connectors and give them a clean.

 

[Ianbill172]

Yeah I've tried that and didn't seem to make a lot of difference :-(
It also cancels my cruise control if i have it set and I indicate left!

 

[Nickwillyhams]

Need to check all the earth points then fella can't tell you where they all are sorry but can't imagine there's that many

 

[Ianbill172]

Ok thats cool. Thought it might be the case anyway! As much I love it, im sure we've all said at some point, bloody French car!

 

[Zeitgeist0190]

This is usually almost ALWAYS the rear light, usually it's the drivers side and the symptoms present when you indicate right, however both clusters have earths so it could feasibly happen to either.

Remove the light fitting, unplug the little connector, and holding the light in your hand, looking INTO the connector, the right-hand pin (earth) is usually corroded and so it jumps to the next connector - rear fog.
Use some needle-nose pliars to gently scrape and corrosion off the pin, and give it a gentle, gentle twist/bend. Mine were REALLY soft, so be careful.
Then, scrub up the connector block, giving all of the connections a squeeze so they firmly contact the pins. Spray a little WD-40 to dispalce any moisture, plug it back in and put your hazards on. Does the fog light on the dash still illuminate?

There is also the rear earth under the boot carpet, if you had water ingrees into the boot, it's possible this got damp and isn't contacting properly, but you'd imagine a lot more issues with this.

 

[Rodg241]

Mine was doing this it turned out to be the n/s/r light
I purchased a second hand one and the wire plug connector too
I replaced and re wired with wire blocks and it's fine now had no issues since replacing the rear light

 

[Laine_16v]

Same for me, was the rear light, i tried sanding the pins but you dont really get a lot of access so i scratched them with a screwdriver to reveal some fresh metal, no problems since (over a year ago)

 

[Nickwillyhams]

If it is the rear light connections then just clean them up, takes a few minutes to do each side. Just put a little bit of sandpaper or such over the end of a terminal screwdriver an give them a scrub. I sprayed a little bit of battery terminal protector spray on just for good measure and everything's been fine ever since. For the sake of ten minutess it definatly worth just going out to your car an doing

Nick

 

[T3gav]

Old thread I know, but is there an earth point under the boot carpet and one further back near the rear bumper? I.e do you have to take the rear trim off near the rear bumper where the eyelets are for the boot net to get to the rear light earth points?