bulb warning light refuses to go off

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

andy_k

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 23, 2003
Messages
5,204
Location
Bexhill, East sussex
Car
Alfa GTV 3.0
my bulb failure warning light refuses to go off.

It illuminates within a few seconds of the sidelights being switched on and refuses to go off.

All the bulbs are working and I've taken them all out and cleaned the contacts, replacing the two rears which were mismatched.

Now my head hurts - any ideas anybody?

1989 230TE

Andy
 
nope they are all working fine koolvin - but i did have to go and check which may well have given me the solution - one of the rear tail lights looks slightly dimmer than the other so i guess I'll have another go at the contacts on that one again tomorrow - it must have a weak earth.

Thanks for the quick reply though

Andy
 
nah Paul, I put new bulbs in the back as one of them was definitely on the way out. It's got to be down to the contacts on the side that looks dimmer - will have a play tomorrow when I have some spare time

Andy
 
warning light

I had same problem, warning light came on as soon as i switched on side lights, i changed the bulbs in rear of car because some where of the wrong wattage, that is critical, the light does not come on now. Rob:rolleyes:
 
it's getting a bit of a bind this one - finally solved the side light one - a slight (and I mean slight) spot of rust on the inside of the bulb holder seemed to be the problem. Great the warning lights gone out :)

Then, one of the brake lights blew - guess it must have got a knock whilst the light fitting was being cleaned up :( new brake bulbs on each side solved the problem - for about half an hour when the reversing lamp bulb failed on the same cluster - once again attributed to being "disturbed" whilst cleaning, so new reversing lights on each side and the light goes out :) :)

Today, dropped the car into reverse and the damned warning light comes on again and won't switch off until the ignition is turned off (it didn't do that the first time a reversing lamp failed) so a quick check around the rear of the car, all the lights working perfectly and the warning light glowing stupidly on the dashboard - it's probably just getting warmed up ready for the indicator or fog lamp bulb :(

Will look at it again tomorrow evening if it stops raining long enough. Thanks for the info Rob, I'd been careful to fit the right bulbs and to fit them in pairs. There's got to be a simple solution and this has to be the fussiest bulb failure warning system I've ever come across.

Oh, btw, whereabouts in east sussex are you?

Andy
 
Hi i'm in Hove part of Brighton. Just bought my first Merc, its a 200 te estate, don't know anything about them though, have always been a Granada man, hope i have done the right thing. Rob
 
Originally posted by andy_k
Today, dropped the car into reverse and the damned warning light comes on again and won't switch off until the ignition is turned off (it didn't do that the first time a reversing lamp failed) so a quick check around the rear of the car, all the lights working perfectly and the warning light glowing stupidly on the dashboard - it's probably just getting warmed up ready for the indicator or fog lamp bulb :(
Andy

Surely if you press the reset button on the side of the dash, the warning light will cancel, or doesn't it on yours?:confused:
 
didn't know there was a reset button :) but......

the problem was finally solved today (hopefully) after taking the lamp holder out for the 6th time, cleaning (very thoroughly) and bending the contacts surrounding the brake lamp bulb very slightly to tighten it's grip the warning lamp has stayed off all day.

Thanks guys for the help/suggestions - I hate silly little niggles like this.

Andy
 
ok - here's an update on the brake lamp saga - after another 3 days of messing around with warning lamps I decided to further investigate - armed with some more new bulbs I tried again, absolutely faultless - turns out the first set of replacement bulbs (bought from Halfords) are a fraction smaller in diameter on the outer sleeve - about 0.2mm - some silly cost cutting execercise maybe? but the new bulbs were a tighter fit and have behaved impeccably.

Moral of the story - don't buy bulbs from Halfords :)

Andy
 
Halfrauds
 
You lot are so harsh! Poor Halfords.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom