One brake light working

[chrisl]

Help !

my 2017 van has always liked a regular supply of various bulbs but this time one of the rear brake lights has blown.
Replaced the bulb but now both the stop and tail sections of the bulb are on , but only on one side.
I have never encountered this, can anyone help ?

[chrisl]

forget to mention the tail light and brake light are both on,on one side only without the brake being applied.

[Satellitemark]

Is the bulb in round the wrong way ?


Mark

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[chrisl]

from memory I don't think stopntail bulbs can go in wrong but I will check in the morning.

the blown bulb that I replaced was looked like it had got really hot which may suggest that it had both sides of the bulb lit for some time.
I run 12-14 hrs a day with sidelights on but have never encountered this before with my last 2 berlingos

[Trevor]

Sounds rather like a bad earth to me, check the earth points on both sides.

[jj9]

Not saying you do this but....

A lot of rear light problems are caused by operating the brake lights for an extended period at traffic lights etc.

I don't know why but for some reason people now sit with their foot on the brake pedal at traffic lights rather than put their hand brake on. 

The heat from the bulbs can cause the bulb holders / wiring to overheat which can cause problems, so don't sit with your foot on the brake pedal for a long time, put the handbrake on and take your foot off the pedal, this also helps the driver behind you as they are not sitting there being blinded by your bright brake lights when it's dark !



Cheers.

[Gadgetman]

A lot of people use the brake because they have those infernal 'stop & pray it starts again' engines. As long as the brake is depressed it keeps the engine off.

Swap the bulbs for LED models to minimise the heat.

[Oi69]

In the last 2 years i have replaced more bulbs in my berlingo van than all the company cars i have had in the last 25 years put together they seem to blow for a past time

[chrisl]

I hear the advice about traffic lights but The van has done 155k in 22months and seldom sees town driving, as I said it’s my third Berlingo and never had this issue before.
For info previous vans had 236 & 136k when I changed them.

Anyway I checked the earth on both taillights and changed both bulbs (again) and it’s fine now.

I have posted about bulbs going before,all are susceptible ,so much that I buy them in bulk to save going to buy them every month.

Thanks for the advice all.


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[cancunia]

Just wondering, did you check the resistance between the bulb holder earth & a known good earth? It seems strange that you're blowing bulbs so regularly, if it's not a poor earth maybe the voltage is a bit high. LED's will have a built in tolerance as they can't take the full 12-15v, so maybe as mentioned above, try some LED bulbs?