Bulb working intermittently

patrickc

I replaced an indicator bulb on my volvo v60, since changing it the indicator works sometimes and not others.

it was a €25 bulb, if it was a cheap one I'd just pop another in. My question is could be the bulb at fault or is it my connection? If the bulb was faulty would it just not work all the time?

cheers in advance

naughtysmurf

Dodgy connection or bad earth possibly, €25 euro for a bulb?? Am I reading that correctly?

patrickc

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Dodgy connection or bad earth possibly, €25 euro for a bulb?? Am I reading that correctly?

yes it's a philips one and no oem one available I tried a few places.

thanks I'll have a look again tomorrow at it.

naughtysmurf

Often, there is a few positives heading down to a light cluster sharing the one return (earth) wire, the earth connection sometimes deteriorates causing intermittent issues, could be that, easy enough fix, if there is any water getting in it could corrode the bulb holder contacts causing poor contact, probably not the bulb

I had an intermittent indicator bulb on Sprinter mirror indicator. It looked perfect including contacts, glass wasn't blackened, the filament was not deteched. But it kept triggering bulb failure warning light sporadically but not even on every trip. After a couple of reseat attempts I replaced the bulb and no more issues. Still subconciosly waiting for tikatikatikatik every time I indicate left months after fixing it.

PS. It was a halogen bulb and not widely available from petrol stations and was something like over a tenner from the parts counter.