Started the car on Saturday and noticed an odd clicking sound from the centre console/dash area.
Then the light failure message came on, and the brake light failure soon after.
I noticed when I press the brake pedal the dash lights come on, as well as the "lights on" indicator, also when the sidelights are on the brake lights come on too.
After running for five minutes or so, the ESP off warning light came on too.
Checked the rear bulbs and noticed that one was much brighter than the others, took it out and the problems disappeared.
Bought and fitted a replacement bulb and the problems have returned.
If I run one bulb short in the o/s cluster all I get are the bulb failure messages, put a fresh one in all hell breaks lose.
Car is now without battery power, hoping that any ECU based problems may clear.
Any ideas re. problem and solution?
Are you 100% certain that you have the right bulb in the right bulb holder and that the bulb holder is not damaged in any way?
Can't be sure of bulb holder damage, I'll go and have a look.
It's just odd that it came on "overnight" so to speak, fine one day, problems next morning.
Further investigation reveals that if I put it in reverse and switch from that to drive and neutral without returning to PARK, the problem disappears.
Pressing the brake will produce a clunk (as I'm allowed to move the lever away from PARK), and no clunks when in drive/neutral, returning to PARK recreates the "dash thunk" when the brake pedal is pressed.
A, now, slightly pink o/s headlight (starts bright blue/white then fades to a pink) also points to poor earthing, connection....
somewhere.
Presuming the headlamp is HID, the change in colour will be an indication of a failing lamp.
The thunk on pressing the brake pedal only occurs when in P as the solenoid releases to allow you to lift the lever to move the selector i.e. what you describe sounds normal.
Quote from: Milowokie on 30 July 2012, 02:18:29 PM
A, now, slightly pink o/s headlight (starts bright blue/white then fades to a pink) also points to poor earthing, connection....
The pink headlight is more likely to be a failed Xenon bulb, if the power wasn't getting there then it wouldn't light. As for the thunk coming out of park, that's sounds like the release mechanism for the gear shift.
Until you make certain the bulb is correct in the rear light cluster and fitted properly along with checking for damage I wouldn't look for other problems. I once fitted a bulb in a rear light cluster that caused problems like this, turned out someone had put the wrong bulb into the box (it was very similar to the correct bulb too!) I'd start with that before looking at other causes. What if you swap the bulb from the good side into the bad?
(curses phoenix who posted while I was writing my reply!)
The thunk is normal, (I'm getting my clicking and thunking muddled in the fault description now) but the dash lights coming on at the same time, when the brake pedal is pressed, isn't.
I was wondering if they could be related? Again if they are.....dodgy earth?
Cleaned up some of the terminals, and earthing point, reconnected the battery and for the first time heard my car alarm. >:(
No brake light/rear light failure messages, brakes lights come on when the pedal is pressed and stay off when the sidelights are turned on. Still get the thunk in PARK, but no dashlights come on at the same time.
Would guess that the pink light (which remains) is an unrelated sign of a failing headlamp.
Quote from: Milowokie on 30 July 2012, 02:48:05 PM
I was wondering if they could be related? Again if they are.....dodgy earth?
Dodgy earth was something I was going to mention. An old friend of mine had some strange things happen when the earth strap between the engine and chassis got broken
Had a scrub and lube of the earth points,
seems that the brake lights on with sidelights problem has gone,
clunking/thunking/clicking in the dash with the dash lights coming on also has gone,
only get the usual (yet similar) clunk/thunk/click when in PARK and pressing the brake to change gear.
Now just have to get rid of the CEL that's appeared and wonder why my (nearly empty) LPG tank is reading full on the gauge.
Quote from: Milowokie on 30 July 2012, 03:43:44 PM
Had a scrub and lube of the earth points,
Not sure what you are 'lubing' them with, but in my experience, at least on aircraft earthing, clean the surfaces so you have a good, dry, bare-metal to bare metal contact, and then apply a primer and paint, followed by coating the area with a thickish layer of sealant such as car body underseal. We use a polysulphide stuff but I doubt you will get any of that
Earth problems are often overlooked. A multimeter will tell you that volts arrive at the component, but it is hard to check resistance under load on the earth side. I had a random selection of light failure/error messages on our Citroen C3, kept fiddling with the earth wires and lighting plugs which gave temporary relief. Then one day I thought right, you b**/ard, drilled each light fitting plate, rivetted a domestic earth wire to them, ran leads inside the boot trim and bolted each one to the inner wing. No more troubles. Must remember to remove it in a few years, the copper might be worth more than the car .....
Quote from: Trenchfoot (aka Max Headroom) on 30 July 2012, 03:57:23 PM
Quote from: Milowokie on 30 July 2012, 03:43:44 PM
Had a scrub and lube of the earth points,
Not sure what you are 'lubing' them with, but in my experience, at least on aircraft earthing, clean the surfaces so you have a good, dry, bare-metal to bare metal contact, and then apply a primer and paint, followed by coating the area with a thickish layer of sealant such as car body underseal. We use a polysulphide stuff but I doubt you will get any of that
Wire brush and WD40 to clean then up, then scrub the post/bolt and use some carb/brake cleaner to get rid of any oil, dirt and other gunge. Install the nice and shiny bits together.
Sounds like you have done a good job, but to make sure you don't get moisture into the bare-metal joint (which will cause an electrolytic corrosion and put you back to square one) it should be sealed over with some sort of sticky waterproof goop.
Silicone sealant is an alternative to the car body underseal mentioned earlier but tends to come loose and peel off with time
You should be able to buy a cartridge of one part polysulphide sealant from a good builders merchants that specialises in supply the civil engineering industry (not B & Q)!