You may remember the problem I had:
> When the headlights are OFF, both brake lights work fine.
> When the headlights are ON, both tail lights work fine.
> When the headlights are ON, only the right tail & brake light work. The
> left side goes blank.
After much digging around the connectors in the trunk, and even
replacing
the bulb carrier in the offending tail light assembly, the problem
persisted.
So after much digging around under the dash - NO tail lights, licence
place
or rear side marker lamps.
Then after more digging around under the dash, fuse box, light switch -
GOT
tail lights etc, but NO front park or side markers!
Finally found the problems - yes of course, plural! The original
problem
was the earthing spring that contacts the bulb in the bulb carrier. It
is
only a contact fit against the multi-fingered spring that clips into the
tail light assembly. When the carrier was out of the tail light
assembly,
it worked fine. But when pressed into the tail light assembly, the
pressure
on the fingers weakened
the contact with the single earthing spring that contacts the bulb. When
more juice from brake AND tail light tried to get through - arced open
circuit. (I even swapped for a spare - same problem.) Talk about
frustrating!
Cure: - take several strands of fine copper wire (eg appliance cord)
wrap it
under the spring, up around one of the fingers, down around the spring
again, and wrap around the finger. That way when the bulb carrier gets
pushed into the assembly, at least some of the wires will contact the
metalized plastic assembly, giving good ground.
Oh, the other problem? Would you believe one or two loose wires where
they
are crimped into the back of the fuse holder. The middle fuse is the
light
fuse, and on the rear are 3 red wires crimped into one connection.
Wiggling
one or the other seems to break contact. I haven't figured out what I'm
going to do about it, other than wiggle it till it works, then hope for
smooth roads.
Cheers, Fred
--
Fred & Wendy Griffiths,
Calgary, Canada
http://www.cadvision.com/griffco/index.htm
mailto: griffco@cadvision.com
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