interesting light problem

[da rok]

Howsit gents, I have a clio 2 1.4 16v and have been having endless problems with the rear lights, initially I had the usual fog light on the dash comeing on when braking or when in reverse, then the indicators started to come on as well. I have checked the clusters and the earths all over the car and nothing changes. I've since replaced all the bulbs in the rear clusters with LED's besides for the indicator bulbs, this sorted out the lighs on the dash and the shorting out to the indicators and the fogs when braking and in reverse.

All was well for a few weeks and then i noticed that with all the lights off, when braking the dash lights would dim as if I switched the head lights on, so I parked close to a wall and touched the brakes and the park lights dimly come on with the brake lights... this dosnt happen when I put the normal bulbs back but then I get the shorting to fogs and indicators... I've tried different bulbs in the different clusters and swapping them from left to right one at a time and all the problems dissapear, as soon as both clusters are connected the problems arise again, no matter the order of the bulbs and clusters... I also noticed last night that the brake and reverse lights on one side dimly flicker when the lights are off at idle, as soon as i bring the revs up they go off...

I know that one of the brake LED's could be shorting out between the two live polls and cause the park lights to come on but the flickering at idle leads me to believe there is a problem further down the line in the wiring somewhere...

anyone got any ideas or has experienced something similar?

I'm not far off ripping everything to pieces and running a home made harness to the lights although even then... I dont know if that would solve the problem...

sorry for the long post, heres a beer:beers:

 

[da rok]

anyone?

 

[McGherkin]

Definitely sounds like an earth fault. You're sure there's no corrosion on the cluster connections?

If you suspect the brake lights, can't you stick the standard bulbs back in to check?

 

[car.crash]

Take the rear earth off from the lights and clean it and refit.

Put proper bulbs back in too.
New ones

 

[da rok]

ive checked and cleaned the earths a number of times, ive tried new normal bulbs as well and it shorts to the fogs and indicators

 

[Dan@SJM]

If it's shorting it's an earth issue as it's trying to find the line with least resistance

 

[McGherkin]

ive checked and cleaned the earths a number of times, ive tried new normal bulbs as well and it shorts to the fogs and indicators

Not the earths, the connections on the back of the clusters. The pins often corrode.

 

[da rok]

ive cleaned them, minimal corsion, think im going to try cover everything and cheese and pour wine over it... should fix it lol
i did pull everything off yesterday and it seems that one of the led bulbs has the twice the resistance as the other so im going to get another set of bulbs and try make up a matched pair, see if that works

 

[Owen92]

Put a normal pair of bulbs in for now. It'll be easier to fault trace with a normal bulb than an LED. Plus cheap LED's are notorious for being hit and miss.

 

[da rok]

if I run normal bulbs after a while under braking the indicators and fogs will come on, seems as everything heats up the pod melts together or something... I only changed to LED as they run cooler and draw less current... these lights... very entertaining... its like my car is trying to look like a Christmas tree 🙈