Faulty rear lights

[02teasda]

My 172 cup recently failed its MOT and one of the things was "rear lights affected by the operation of another light".

Having looked through the forum I found this on a post about buying Clio sports and what to look out for.

"Check the rear lights faulty rear light of any type isusually down to a poor earthing connected/water getting in them so dry the unit and fix and check the earthing point on the left hand side of the car in the boot down below the upper seat belt point for a good connection its under the side covr."

Problem is I've had the rear door card and the plastic cover in the boot off and cannot for the life of me locate this? Can anyone point me in the right direction of it please?

Any help much appreciated!

 

[James28]

It will be the connectors. A really common problem.
Unscrew the cluster, disconnect the plastic wire connectors, and clean with WD40 and small brush (toothbrush or similar)

The earth for the lights is directly beneath the light cluster inside the boot. No need to remove anything just pull back the carpet immediately behind the clusters and trace the wire down.

 

[02teasda]

Thanks for your reply James.

I've taken the clusters out and cleaned the metal connectors with wd40 and a toothbrush, checked the earth was ok and I'm still having problems? :-S any ideas what else could be causing it?

Cheers

 

[HarriBanjo]

My rear lights do the same - I've had a bash at them with WD40 but only saw a minor improvement

 

[-J-]

Thanks for your reply James.

I've taken the clusters out and cleaned the metal connectors with wd40 and a toothbrush, checked the earth was ok and I'm still having problems? :-S any ideas what else could be causing it?

Cheers

On mine I did the same and out them back in, same issue... Stripped them b k out and noticed one of the connection pins was a little bent and not making a solid connection. Pull them back off and gently bend the pins back a little to ensure a solid contact.

 

[James28]

It will just be a faulty connection, as J said, check the pins.
Mine had corroded. Could try an electrical contact cleaner or similar,

With mine I just cut the connectors off and rewired with replacement connectors from a scrapyard, along with replacement bulb holders.

 

[Danith]

Is this where you press the brakes and the rear fog light comes on on the dash?! Mine's doing this too, it's doing my head in!

 

[02teasda]

Is this where you press the brakes and the rear fog light comes on on the dash?! Mine's doing this too, it's doing my head in!

Yeah this is exactly what mine does and gets right on my chebs!
I'll have another look tomorrow and see if I can bend the connectors back slightly and let you know. Mine failed its MOT on it because they are affected by the operation of another light.

 

[02teasda]

Thanks for your help!

All sorted now, took the connectors back off an bent the pins back slightly now they work as they should!

 

[-J-]

Nice one, glad it turned out to be simple.

 

[Danith]

Cheers for the info! I'll give mine a bash this weekend. Both my ph1's never had any of these little niggly issues!

 

[02teasda]

It's one of them things that used to really annoy me but until it failed its MOT never bothered doing anything about it... Can't say I'll miss it either!

 

[Danith]

Dreading MOT!! Seems to have got overly harsh recently. Just glad I don't have my 205 GTi anymore, the dash on that was lit up like a fruit machine.

 

[Ricardos]

Is this where you press the brakes and the rear fog light comes on on the dash?! Mine's doing this too, it's doing my head in!

Mine did this too, turned out due to water ingress the connector and pins were corroded on the bulb holder. Unclipped the connector off the bulb holder, cleaned the terminals then cleaned the pins on the holder........ Job done, what happened was the loom to the rear light was trapped in the sponge on the holder letting water through. Also noticed slight corrosion on the metal lines between the bulbs so i'm going to get a decent bulb holder and loom connector thats clean to swap over

 

[sleekitwan]

FREE FIX - FINE NOSED long pointy pliers, take the rear light clusters apart, one at a time. UNPLUG the electrical connector. Use long-nosed pliers to grip head-on the EARTH connector PRONG it might be the third one down, from memory, trace the one that goes to metal track common to ALL the bulbs. TWIST THIS PRONG by just a fraction. You can WD40 it and re-assemble. Do both to be sure, but boy, have some people spent money on new light clusters - my spouse's mechanic waxed on about what a good deal he got her on a second-hand light cluster - GREAT BUT YOU DON'T NEED IT, THE CURE IS FREE. TWIST THE PRONG WITH FINE-NOSED PLIERS A FRACTION, WD40 AND RE-CONNECT. DONE, FREE!

 

[Carlv8415]

FREE FIX - FINE NOSED long pointy pliers, take the rear light clusters apart, one at a time. UNPLUG the electrical connector. Use long-nosed pliers to grip head-on the EARTH connector PRONG it might be the third one down, from memory, trace the one that goes to metal track common to ALL the bulbs. TWIST THIS PRONG by just a fraction. You can WD40 it and re-assemble. Do both to be sure, but boy, have some people spent money on new light clusters - my spouse's mechanic waxed on about what a good deal he got her on a second-hand light cluster - GREAT BUT YOU DON'T NEED IT, THE CURE IS FREE. TWIST THE PRONG WITH FINE-NOSED PLIERS A FRACTION, WD40 AND RE-CONNECT. DONE, FREE!

It's only free if you already own a pair of long nosed pliers