For the past few weeks I was at the beginning ocassionally getting a "check LHR turn signal check LHR fog lamp" but only while braking. It has now got to the point that turning on the side or dipped beam causes the entire light cluster to short out and the reverse lamp on both sides is lit dimmly while the right cluster otherwise continues to work as normal and the left side is otherwise completely unlit. I took both clusters out today to find this burn damage:




Where do I start !?

Hi,

Well the first step would be to check for any visible shorts on the cluster. Carefully inspect each circuit to make sure none of them do anything funny.

Second step would be to clean all the contacts on the cluster, give them some sandpaper as well.

Third step would be to replace all bulbs. Your problem could be a big loss in the resistance of one of the bulbs so as you brake, the whole circuit could overheat and cause the damage you see.Bulbs are only going to set you back around 10£, so it's a well worth investment. I've changed all the bulbs in mine last year for a similar issue, although I did not see any burns on the circuits, just intermittent light bulb failures that were driving me crazy because they were all working.

Good luck.

Cheers.

Hey vladof, I had already done all of the above but with no luck. I have now fixed the problem though so I will post pictures explaining the solution when I get to a pc . Upon searching there were quite a few threads with people having this problem and none seemed to explain the fix properly so hopefully it will help someone!

Cheers Minus8. Glad it was sorted.

Looking forward to find out what that was all about.

Good night.

Ok, so after doing a bit of searching on the forums, as Vladof suggested my first port of call was to clean up the terminals and bulb holders with contact cleaner (not WD40 or similar). This failed me so I changed all the bulbs, again this made no difference.

I noticed that when my lights were switched off but I activated the left indicator (the side that the bulb warnings were showing for) that the rear left was very dim. From this I took a shot in the dark that the earth was for some reason acting up, so here was my quick fix solution:



The top terminal on my car was the earth (black cable) I removed this pin alltogether and pulled the pin on the cluster through to the bulb side and bent it straight. I then soldered one end of the blue cable onto the metal contact, pulled the blue cable through the existing wiring hole and screwed the mounting nut down onto it, creating a fresh earth point and with it completing the circuit.

You could connect this wire to any point on the body or to the end of the existing black earth cable but with the other end soldered to the cluster it would make removing the lights more difficult in the future. Since doing this I have been warning free. God only knows why the previous earth failed so badly but there you have it. Hopefully this quick fix can be of use to somebody else

Over and out!

Top job here.

Thank you for the advice. Now we all know.