Brake Light Woes.......

[jerryd]

My "Counties" brake lights have developed a strange problem :eek: When I brake the sidelights at the front come on too.

If I switch the sidelights on they work fine at the front and rear, but if I apply pressure to the brake pedal (no ignition) the battery light and parking brake light come on :o, the wipers will also work, the fan will work too if switched on.

With the ignition on and the sidelights on, there are no brakelights at all. I've been checking connections, earth wires etc. and all seem fine, however I've now discovered that if I remove a positive wire from the left rear light assembly, the problem goes away :wacko:

I've tried a different light assembly but the problem remains, I'm just wondering if anybody has any ideas ?? what it might be ?? Could it be a bad earth somewhere else ??

[BigJon]

Sounds like a bad earth or a trailer plug issue.

[fraser130]

I've never seen it before, but in theory a bulb could internally short from the brake filament to the tail light filament, try removing the bulbs one at a time, see if one has any influence on the problem.

Fraser

[JDNSW]

It is almost certainly an earth fault, probably to the rear tail/brake lights. You can confirm this by temporarily running a wire from one of the rear lights, preferably the actual bulb base, to the battery negative or other absolutely certain good light, and see if this fixes the problem. Then, assuming it does, find the earth fault - probably the earth wire to the rear lights has a faulty connection to the chassis, but it could be a broken wire or even just rusty sockets.

What is probably happening is that the stop light is earthing via the tail light filament to the earths via the front light filament. None of the lights will be at full brilliance.

John

[jerryd]

Thanks for the tips, I'll continue tomorrow night as I've had enough of it tonight :D bloody landrovers:D

I'll try the bulb theory first, then replace some of the earth cables as some don't look too clever on close inspection. It looks like the left rear side has had a few alterations done over the years.

I've checked the trailer plug and it all seems okay, I even removed the earth wire and cleaned the connections as I thought that might be the fault. If all else fails I'll have to submit to an auto electrician.

[Grockle]

sounds like a short as previously mentioned, the bulbs do corrode in the holders, I use vasaline on all of ours to stop it,had simular fault a on TD5 someyears ago

[jerryd]

Well I've put new earth wires in all the rear section and tried the brake lights. and I still had all the problems :eek:

So I've now changed all the light bulbs as suggested and the problem has gone :D Who would think a light bulb could cause so much grief. Now I'm going to go through each one and find the culprit :twisted:

[incisor]

can be fun hey...

i have gone thru my second light switch in under 12 months.. this time the copper contact on the arm cracked and shorted the switch , which melted the contact pin holders...

bless you mr lucas.... and mr britpart...