panda4president
New member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2016
- Messages
- 18
- Points
- 10
Hi All, quick post to share a problem I solved today.
Symptoms:
The problem was a corroded earth pin on the light cluster terminal, and/or a corroded and deformed earth pin on the terminal block on the car.
The first thing I noticed was that the earth pin on the lighting cluster was corroded, and had been heated. I sanded it down to remove the corrosion. Here's a picture of the pins after sanding:
If you look very closely you can see that there is some melted plastic at the base of the earth pin, which indicates that at one point it was heated (probably by the high electrical resistance due to the corrosion).
The head had caused a problem on the terminal block on the car side of the connection.
As you can see from the picture, the earth terminal is not only corroded, but the mating lobes(?) are deformed and wide open, which means they don't squeeze the pin when the connector is plugged in. Here's another picture:
I sanded them down a bit to get rid of the corrosion, and I dug underneath each lobe(?) to bend them back inwards.
I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of the terminal block after the work, but the earth terminal looked a lot more like the rest.
After plugging everything back in, things work again.
Symptoms:
- Left hand side tail lights went dim when the left indicator or brake light was turned on.
- Double timing on the left indicator.
- When the wipers were on and the left indicator or brake light turned on, the rear wiper was activated :yum:.
The problem was a corroded earth pin on the light cluster terminal, and/or a corroded and deformed earth pin on the terminal block on the car.
The first thing I noticed was that the earth pin on the lighting cluster was corroded, and had been heated. I sanded it down to remove the corrosion. Here's a picture of the pins after sanding:
If you look very closely you can see that there is some melted plastic at the base of the earth pin, which indicates that at one point it was heated (probably by the high electrical resistance due to the corrosion).
The head had caused a problem on the terminal block on the car side of the connection.
As you can see from the picture, the earth terminal is not only corroded, but the mating lobes(?) are deformed and wide open, which means they don't squeeze the pin when the connector is plugged in. Here's another picture:
I sanded them down a bit to get rid of the corrosion, and I dug underneath each lobe(?) to bend them back inwards.
I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of the terminal block after the work, but the earth terminal looked a lot more like the rest.
After plugging everything back in, things work again.