I must be missing something obvious but has anyone any idea why suddenly my offside rear light cluster may have ceased to work? I had the lens off as I was working on the bodywork just below it, but to my knowledge I haven't touched or disconnected any wires and the fuse works as I've checked that and all bulbs are OK too. The stop / tail and the indicators are not working at all on that side of the bus, the nearside ones are fine. What could I have done?
Most likely you have knocked off the earth wire (brown) on the back of the light cluster .....either that or the earth wire that connects to the D post (just in side the engine hatch) ....this is where the earth for your light cluster has come from if they are connected then you have probably bumped them and they are not making a good electrical connection (probably a bit of corrosion) so take them off, give them a clean up and put back on
Cheers fella, the earth to the D post is firm I'll lean further in and examine the other end of it (once it stops raining). I have sprayed some WD40 across the contacts but that hasn't helped. I hate rear lights - virtually every car I've had over 8 years old has had issues!
Had a look at both - doesn't seem to be an issue, however I suspect I'm gonna have to take the cluster off and check every wire / connection. It doesn't help that whoever put the tow bar on connected the wiring here and it is like spaghetti junction (most connections seem to be spliced and insulation taped then linked to a block connector to the tow bar). I think I'll try and disconnect the tow bar wiring and re-wire the cluster on its own. Still odd that it's just gone though
I've replaced the earth wire and connectors and still nothing. Something must be disconnected somewhere but I'm blowed if I can see it...
in a normal set up, the earth is the only common thing between the individual lights at the clusters. Have you tried making a short eath lead and connecting it to a good earth and the back plate at the lights? failing that, as some one has put in tow bar electrics....perhapse all the feeds to the rear lights have been dissconnected there some how?......but in normal set ups the off side then loops over to the near side .....so logic says its got to be a bad earth on the off side cluster ........although I've been wrong before
Your logic seems perfect to me. The near side works perfectly so the 'loop' is fine. I will try earthing to a different location - can't quite understand why the D post suddenly is no good though... Failing that I'll disconnect the tow bar wiring as I don't use it anyway, and re-wire all the connections.
I'd hang fire on the tow bar wiring as you might dissconnect something else and compound the problem by having to look for more than one fault at a time. you could try running a temporary earth direct from the battery terminal as the battery is right next to the light .......that way you will know at least one end is a good earth
Hmmm Now I've changed the earth connection from cluster to D post (new wire and terminal connectors), still not working. I've run a wire from the earth terminal on the cluster to the earth on the battery and still not working. I've checked the connections to the tow bar and they are actually soldered so I believe them to be fine. I'm guessing the best thing to do is remove the cluster from the van (not the easiest thing in the world to do as I can't see 2 of the retaining nuts), clean and re-connect every wire. I can't help feeling I'm missing something. Frustrated.com!
Im not surprised. does seem strange but dont know the history of whats been done. You got a multi meter? Check for voltage on the feeds, earth continuity and continuity across the lamps. Do it one circuit at a time. lights are easies to start with (ie on sidelight ) but watch for draining your battery.
TBH everything was working perfectly until yesterday and I don't know that I could have done or dislodged or what.... I need to get a multimeter then I guess...
