Taillights not working

R

Ragvald

New Member
I know, this should be a quite straightforward thing, but it´s a bit puzzling :?: anyway, hence:

1. the fuse is allright and no corrosion on contactspaces
2. The lamps are allright

Any earthing spots at the rear that are "usual suspects"?
Other usual suspects?
 
Is it just tail lights, or rear indicators, reversing lights and brake lights as well?
 
There is some earth wires which clip in to the wing but the lamp body can corrode around them.

A quick check would be to turn on the lamps and hold a wire to the negative on the battery and the lamp. It would be best to take the covers off than touch the wire to the bulb.

Have you checked the bullets in the boot for power?

Colin
 
Only the taillights, all others: reverse, indicators, brakelights do work. I will try the trick with earting directly to the battery.
Thank you gentlemen! Looking forward to take out the old girl on the road, the P6 is just such a nice ride :D
 
Ragvald said:
arthuy said:
Have you checked the bullets in the boot for power?

Colin
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you mean by the bullets.
Click to expand...

Ragvald

The rear light clusters (and front) are connected to the wiring loom with bullet type connectors. If you remove the bullet connectors that supply power to the tail lights and connect a voltmeter between that connector in the loom and earth you should get battery voltage with the light switch on.

If both tail lights are not working, the other thing to check is the supply to the fuse box. The fuse terminals might look ok but it's worth putting a voltmeter on the supply side of the fuse to see if you get battery voltage there with the light switch on. Not sure which fuse it is or if the fuse protects any other circuits. Another thing to check might be that the fuse is making contact with both sides of the holder. I had a problem with an intermittent headlamp main beam. I was thrown a bit by the fact that the main beam flash worked so I thought it was the stalk switch. It turned out to be the fuse holder as the supply for the flash and steady main beam comes off opposite blades on the same side of the fuse holder.

Ultimately, if you have power at the bullets in the boot then either you have an earth or supply problem on the light clusters. The fact that both tail lights don't work suggests something further down the circuit towards the fuse.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers

Dave
 
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