About a month ago I noticed my passenger side headlight was flickering. Obvious problem was a bad earth. I initially suspected the leisure battery I had installed. I've replaced all the earth cables on that and i have it earthed to one of the bolts holding the drivers seat to the chassis. The bolt has been cleaned up of paint etc and the paint stripped from the point it attaches to the seat sub-frame. In short I'm confident that is earthed correctly.

However I'm still getting problems with the headlight. I've removed the bulbs and made sure the contacts are clean and ok. I tried replacing bulbs too but no change.

The passenger side headlight is dim, and the indicator is also faintly illuminated. When I indicate left the headlight flashes. When I go to full beam it dims even further. All sounds like a bad earth. The problem comes and goes so sometimes it works ok, other times I have the problems listed about.

Last night when trying to work out what's going on, I had the engine running and the lights on. They were dim and I gave the passenger side wing a little slap with my hand and all of a sudden the lights worked ok. I'm suspecting there's a loose earth wire in there somewhere.

Checking the archive I saw a mention of an earth point somewhere in that area. It was an older thread from 2008 so does anyone know if that point is still there on the 2012 model, and what exactly does it look like?

hi, not too sure..

worth wiggling the wiring you CAN SEE , in case something is chafed / shorting..,

when I had a similar issue on an old Tipo, it was a partially broken wire,

lesson learned.


Charlie

Yeah I've had a wiggle of the wires going to the bulbs and that did nothing but the slap on the wing brought them back instantly

ok, the only earth points I'm aware of are bolt-ons around / under the battery tray..down to gearbox, and up to battery NEGATIVE terminal..,

worth checking them..,

:idea: is there a screenwash pump / similar in that area..??

a specific unit/ device..rather than just a loom or earth point.

Yes screenwash reservoir and pump are in the vicinity

Problem solved.

I'd been looking at the wires going directly into the bulbs. I had another look yesterday and discovered the master plug/socket that connects all the wiring into the headlight unit. Turned out the passenger side was loose and wasn't fully clicked into place. The problem surfaced after the van had been in for an mot and service so I'm guessing a mechanic has knocked it. All sorted now!