earth points?

[Mr Noble]

Hi helpful folks,

Can't remember the last time I had need to post a problem on here!

My rear light cluster on the drivers side has issues. Its very faint and all the lights look like they are only half connected. The indicator flips twice as fast as normal indicating a blown bulb but its very faittly on and comes back to normal under high revs.

All this indicates an earth fault, but i'm not sure where to look.

The cluster connector is mounted on the n/s rear frame and is pretty close to the new exhaust and i wonder if its been heated up so much that some of the terminals have a dodgy connection now.

What should I check?

Geg

[gaz 7404]

Good morning,
You have the marcos lights i believe (lucky bugger) but could still be a similar problem i just had with the standard mondeo lights, they had become damp inside and started to corrode all terminals.Have you checked the light lenses themselves? clean up all terminals etc? Gaz

[Adrian W]

Check for water ingress or corrosion to the connector, soak it in WD40 or switchclean for about an hour and see if things inprove, dont use anything abrasive as this will destroy the plating on the pins and will get worse very quickly.

[V6GTO]

Adrian W said:

dont use anything abrasive as this will destroy the plating on the pins and will get worse very quickly.

If that (good) advice is too late, if you've allready done the dirty deed, use vasaline on the contacts.

Martin.

[RobP]

V6GTO said:

if you've allready done the dirty deed, use vasaline on the contacts.

Didn't think it was that kind of forum...

[Mr Noble]

Thanks guys. Sorry, I've been mountain biking at The Nevis Range for a few days. Totally exhausted now, but will have a fiddle with some wd40 and vaselene over the weekend.

G

[sjc]

Mr Noble said:

Thanks guys. Sorry, I've been mountain biking at The Nevis Range for a few days. Totally exhausted now, but will have a fiddle with some wd40 and vaselene over the weekend.

G

[Adrian W]

He's from Cambridge!

[Mr Noble]

Adrian W said:

He's from Cambridge!

He's from Harlow!

[gizard]

Also check that a wire Has not been pulled loose from either side of the socket - this happened to mine once and was not imediatly obvious.

[sean_goodman]

playing the same game at the moment, rear left indicator dont work at all, strange thing is it does work if i put hazards on

[AMG Merc]

sean_goodman said:

playing the same game at the moment, rear left indicator dont work at all, strange thing is it does work if i put hazards on

Have you tried wiggling the stalk (so to speak!) whilst in the "on" position - could be a stalk problem.

[sean_goodman]

AMG Merc said:

sean_goodman said:

playing the same game at the moment, rear left indicator dont work at all, strange thing is it does work if i put hazards on

Have you tried wiggling the stalk (so to speak!) whilst in the "on" position - could be a stalk problem.

i wondered about having a look there, i looked at the wiring diagram to see how the hazard switch interacted with the stalk switch to see if it would narrow down where the fault would be but from looking at the diagram the fault doesnt make sence esprecially as front and side indicator work all be it fast due to less load on the flasher unit.

i will have a poke around under the cowling to see whats going on.

time to get the multimeter and diagrams out and have a good old fish about, annoying as its getting cold in germany now and my workshop is about the same temp as that of outside.

off to buy a gas bottle me thinks

also give me a chance to mend the front turbo shield which rattles due to the top bracket being broken

[AMG Merc]

Sean, I don't think the flasher circuit goes through the stalk in any way so the fact that the flasher works only tells you that the wiring and bulb is good to that corner (which actually helps a lot in your diagnosis).

[F.C.]

So, if the flasher has a stalk on should you use Vaseline or WD40 to do the dirty deed?

[sean_goodman]

AMG Merc said:

Sean, I don't think the flasher circuit goes through the stalk in any way so the fact that the flasher works only tells you that the wiring and bulb is good to that corner (which actually helps a lot in your diagnosis).

exactly that means the wiring from the flasher unit to the back is all good

one would then guess the fault must be between where the stalk and where the circuit becomes common with the flasher circuit.

that would be great if left indicators all didnt work but as the front and side indicator work it makes it all a bit wierd.

dont think i have explained that very well, a look at the circuit diagram will show you what i mean.

havnt had the chance to go poke about yet, probably take it into work one dey next week and fill a quite afternoon, thats if it warms up a bit, germany is getting cold at the moment