Clio W reg - tail lights dim when indicating

[raoulduke333]

Hi
Firstly, thanks in advance for reading / trying to help with my problem.

Here's the trouble....

My clio has failed the MOT for a "christmas tree" effect on the rear lights. When the tail lights are lit my left hand tail will dim and brighten up in (opposite) time with the indicator lighting up. On the right I'm not sure if I can see a small amount of the same thing but it is very slight if so ( I may just be paranoid).

I've cleaned up the wiring connectors on the cable and on the light cluster plus I cleaned up the earth connection. All needed doing as they were green.

Any idea's what could be causing this?

Also - can anyone advise if they've successfully cleaned up the headlights on one of these? My lights are oxidised which is causing poor illumination and have failed the MOT. Have buffed them with Macguiars Plastrx all day today but they still don't look like the cars in the promotional video once they had a bit of buffing!

cheers
col

 

[inpassing]

check plugs again n make sure none of the connectors have melted slightly. this happend to me

 

[raoulduke333]

ok thanks, will have another go at them today.....

 

[Chrisjk]

Most likely corrosion on the connectors and not grounding properly.

 

[KEVRSI]

also check all the relays are pushed in they are under the glovebox on the roof of the passenger footwell , its the square things , these work loose cause the fuse box is mounted upside down , if its this you wil here a clicking sound.

 

[raoulduke333]

Thanks for the help everyone.
I tried all the following
sanded / wire brushed the connector plugs,
sanded / wire brushed the earth connection to the car - the circle connector on the end of the wire and the stubby nut like bit connected to the body of the car (noticed that the connecting surface of this had been sprayed green with the car on one side so i cleaned all the paint off)
sanded / wire brushed all the connector points on the light clusters and also cleaned up the bulb receiver points on the cluster as they looked grubby
After all this the bloody Christmas tree light effect was still happening. After I bit of fiddling and messing I had the lights on and pushed the connector onto the cluster and I noticed that it worked properly with the connector half way off so I put it in the MOT like this and it passed. Now I'll just push the connector back on all the way until next year.......
Must be some kind of bad connection happening on the plug but I'm buggered if I can tell why.
Thanks Again!

 

[raoulduke333]

oh and he headlights went through too after another good buffing with the Macguiars stuff. I was skeptical so maybe the tester took pity on my defective vehicle. 9 fails bested. Just another 14 advisories to work through now......

 

[TomBear]

did u clean the connections to the bulbs and the bulb holders?

 

[raoulduke333]

yeah I cleaned them - little gold (or something) coated, spring loaded things. I scrubbed them silver with sand paper and a brush. I gave the holders a good scrub in the process. They all had a nice clean silver surface afterwards.....

 

[TomBear]

i had the same problem on my car, sorted the problem with a screwdriver lol