Fiesta mark 6 06plate front sidelights.

[Darlo 1]

Hi, just a quick one, my cousin owns a 06 plate fiesta mark 6, should the front side lights illuminate when the brake pedal is pressed? I've never seen this on any other car and am thinking a possible short somewhere, you can also see them dip/brighten when the lights are on, but when all lights are off they light up with the brake lights, any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[anonymous-user]

Errrr no, they shouldn’t. Sounds like a poor earth.

[MrBen1]

I've seen this before - it had the wrong type of bulb in the brake light and was connecting the side light circuit to the brake light circuit. Suspect it's supposed to be a twin filament tail/brake bulb, but has a single filament bulb in.

[anonymous-user]

MrBen1 said:

I've seen this before - it had the wrong type of bulb in the brake light and was connecting the side light circuit to the brake light circuit. Suspect it's supposed to be a twin filament tail/brake bulb, but has a single filament bulb in.

I was going to suggest the same, compare the brake light bulbs to see if they are the same, if they are, remove one at a time and see which is causing the problem.

[Darlo 1]

Thanks for the replys, will have a look when he comes over next, just to reiterate it is the front sidelights lighting up with the brake lights.

Edited by Darlo 1 on Friday 7th August 17:11

[njw1]

Also, check the earth connections in the multiplugs on the rear light clusters, these corrode and/or overheat over time which usually results in some very odd things happening with the lights.

[Penelope Stopit]

Faulty rear stop/tail bulb will give the same

Brake light circuit supplies tail/sidelights circuit

[Darlo 1]

Just a quick update, as suggested it was indeed a wrong bulb fitted, single filiment instead of a double in the brake light socket.

[Dogwatch]

Darlo 1 said:

Just a quick update, as suggested it was indeed a wrong bulb fitted, single filiment instead of a double in the brake light socket.

"If it fits, it must be the right bulb". Err no. Glad it has been sorted.

A rather rarer cause of the same symptom I once heard of was when one filament of a dual filament buib failed and one end of the broken bit fell onto the other filament causing a connection between the two circuits. Pretty rare however and assuming the correct bulbs have been fitted many lighting problems can be traced to a faulty earth as suggested above.