Brake Light Problem. 06 Zafira

goz83

I noticed the passenger tail/brake light was not working last night. I changed bulb and still no joy. I swapped over the bulb from driver side and the passenger side still failed, so not the bulb. No corrosion or obvious wiring problem I can see, but I'm not the best with electrical stuff. Here is what I noticed:

When I turned on the full lights, nothing happens with the rear lights until I press the brake pedal. When I press the brake pedal, the brake lights illuminate, but the passenger side only flickers for a few seconds and then dies. When I release the pedal, the driver side rear light stays on (as it should have been on to begin with) and the passenger side is still dead. So the brake pedal needs to be pressed before anything happens in the rear.

It gets a bit stranger, because I noticed that if the ignition is off and I use the indicator stalk to indicate left, or right, the little arrow (left, or right) will stay illuminated until I tap the stalk to the opposite side. When the indicator stalk is pressed for the drivers side, the regular brake light comes on and stays on. Turning the key in the ignition returns the indicators to normal function, but I thought it might be relevant. I can't go wire chasing and don't have the testing equipment either, so I am hoping for a magic fix. My man-flu has me in a bad way today. Whiskey didn't help either

Someone suggested a fuse, but I assume that one fuse covers both sides of the tail lights? I am stumped here. Any advice?

gate1

Most likely your problem is caused by a bad earth. You often see this when driving behind a car and they brake and the lights flash all over the place.

Check and clean the earth conection in the car. By clean, I mean remove and clean the earth terminal with a piece of sand paper. Make sure the earth terminals are tight. Check the earth on wiring to light fitting and car battery. The earth is bonded to the car body.

I'm sure this will fix the problem.

regards

goz83

I couldn't find the problem for the life of me. Had to leave into garage. 2 and a half hours later it was fixed. There was some water in the rear fuse box. That's probably why there was a starting problem a few weeks ago too. It's €130 I would have preferred not to spend, but I wouldn't have found the problem and they had their auto electrician work on it.

biko

Yeah that's life but at least it took more than 2 hours for their guy to find the issue, and he's an expert.

gate1

dampness or water gives the same problems as a poor earth. Glad you got it fixed