Quashqai with white brake lights

ohnonotgmail

I came up behind a car stopped at traffic lights this morning. When i first looked at it i thought the driver had put it into reverse so i stopped well short. I then realised the white lights i was seeing were its brake lights. The were definitely the brake lights as they were coming on in tandem with the third brake light on the top of the rear window. The car was a 2008 quashqai. a couple of questions :

1. Should it have red lenses and white bulbs for the brake light or clear lenses and red bulbs?
2. What short of gob****e would do this?
3. This would be an NCT fail for sure but are they doing anything illegal?

colm_mcm

Could be a wiring fault where the reverse lights are coming on

slimjimmc

I'm not aware of any car with clear lens and red bulb, most clusters with clear outer plastic had a red inner filter.
Probably an earth fault.
By law (SI 189/1963 13.1) brake lights must be red so showing a white light is illegal.

Skylinehead

The amount of French cars with the wrong bulb coming on is unbelievable. Was the Qashqai made there maybe, I know Nissan are close to Renault.

ohnonotgmail

Just had a look at a qashqai of the same year in the company car park. The part that was clear on the car this morning is red on the car i've just looked at. So at some stage they replaced the red lens with a clear one. As it is on both sides it must have been done deliberately. This seems incredibly dangerous to me as like i said this morning it looked like they had put on their reversing lights. Worth reporting to the guards?

slimjimmc

If you have the reg number then by all means report it. You could be doing him/her a favour.

Skylinehead wrote: »

The amount of French cars with the wrong bulb coming on is unbelievable. Was the Qashqai made there maybe, I know Nissan are close to Renault.

Seen plenty on other cars too, from bad earths to 21W tail lights (stop/tail bulb fitted wrong way) to brake lights on constantly.

ofcork

Maybe the lenses were cracked unlikely i know.

ohnonotgmail

ofcork wrote: »

Maybe the lenses were cracked unlikely i know.

I did think of that (i wasnt going to get close enough to make sure) but it would be odd for both of them to be broken.

Noccy_Mondy

Ya, could easily be a wiring fault. I was behind a 2002 corsa yesterday with the brake lights stuck on. So difficult to tell if they were slowing down/going to stop suddenly. Almost shat myself a few times....

moleyv

Was behind a Mondeo the other day, only two thirds of his centre rear break light worked and no other brake lights, until.....

approaching a roundabout his left rear break light began flashing as he indicated left

colm_mcm

Unmarked garda car?

ohnonotgmail

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Ya, could easily be a wiring fault. I was behind a 2002 corsa yesterday with the brake lights stuck on. So difficult to tell if they were slowing down/going to stop suddenly. Almost shat myself a few times....

colm_mcm wrote: »

Unmarked garda car?

The part of the light cover that should be red was white so its not a wiring fault and i cant see why a garda car would have white brake lights.

colm_mcm

The unmarked Garda comment was in reply to post #10.

Unmarked cars often have one bulb in the centre brake light swapped for a flashing blue strobe.

ohnonotgmail

colm_mcm wrote: »

The unmarked Garda comment was in reply to post #10.

Unmarked cars often have one bulb in the centre brake light swapped for a flashing blue strobe.

my mistake.

moleyv

colm_mcm wrote:

The unmarked Garda comment was in reply to post #10.

Possible, but this lad would have been the deepest undercover guard ever, and I don't think they would have their brake lights wired up as indicators.

I would have expected a guard to have a bit better driving ability too compared to the crash for cash style this fella was trying out.

colm_mcm

are we readin the same thread?

moleyv

moleyv wrote:

Was behind a Mondeo the other day, only two thirds of his centre rear break light worked and no other brake lights, until.....

moleyv wrote:

approaching a roundabout his left rear break light began flashing as he indicated left

colm_mcm wrote:

Unmarked garda car?

colm_mcm wrote:

The unmarked Garda comment was in reply to post #10.

colm_mcm wrote:

Unmarked cars often have one bulb in the centre brake light swapped for a flashing blue strobe.

colm_mcm wrote:

are we readin the same thread?

Think so. I was providing another example of incorrect brake lights.

sunnysoutheast

I was behind a Zafira the other morning that had no side brake lights and only one working bulb in the high-level light that went off periodically - which coincided with the vehicle braking fairly sharply from a speed well under the 60kmh limit.

I stayed well back, looked like a cash-for-crasher to me.