>From: "Stephen J. Swift" <>
>At one time or another, most of us have experienced frustration,
>embarassment or anger as a direct result of our cars' Lucas electrical
>system. Knowing that, I thought you might enjoy my recent discovery that
>Ultimate Driving Machines breed electrical gremlins of their own.
>Last year I purchased a nine year old BMW 735i with 87k miles on it from my
>sister who had maintenance records for the car since it was new. The only
>known problem was that the onboard computer at times displayed incorrect
>error messages suggesting that there was a tail and/or parking light out. I
>had the car inspected by a BMW specialist who gave it a clean bill of health
>and offered the opinion that I was getting it at a great price. Although no
>faulty error messages were displayed while he had it, he suggested that a
>new mother board for the computer would fix the problem at a cost of around
>$900.
I had a similar experience on my 85 Jag...the "defective lamp" indicator was
lit. It turned out that one of the tail lamp bulbs was the wrong type (the tail
lamp was not drawing enough current to de-activate the warning sensor circuit).
I replaced the offending bulb and the dash light went away.... so, might be
worth checking your lamps. Other causes might be resistance due to corrosion in
the contacts or connectors, or to grounds.
Richard
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