Zafira causing problems again. Rear light

[goz_83]

I noticed the passenger tail/brake light was not working last night. I changed bulb and still no joy. I swapped over the bulb from driver side and the passenger side still failed, so not the bulb. No corrosion or obvious wiring problem I can see, but I'm not the best with electrical stuff. Here is what I noticed:

When I turned on the full lights, nothing happens with the rear lights until I press the brake pedal. When I press the brake pedal, the brake lights illuminate, but the passenger side only flickers for a few seconds and then dies. When I release the pedal, the driver side rear light stays on (as it should have been on to begin with) and the passenger side is still dead. So the brake pedal needs to be pressed before anything happens in the rear.

It gets a bit stranger, because I noticed that if the ignition is off and I use the indicator stalk to indicate left, or right, the little arrow (left, or right) will stay illuminated until I tap the stalk to the opposite side. When the indicator stalk is pressed for the drivers side, the regular brake light comes on and stays on. Turning the key in the ignition returns the indicators to normal function, but I thought it might be relevant. I can't go wire chasing and don't have the testing equipment either, so I am hoping for a magic fix. My man-flu has me in a bad way today. Whiskey didn't help either

Someone suggested a fuse, but I assume that one fuse covers both sides of the tail lights? I am stumped here. Any advice?

[mivecrx]

I'm not sure what the problem is with having no tail lights. Maybe a bad earth.

The indicator thing isn't a problem, that's normal on most European cars. When the car is off, if you move the stalk to indicate left or right it will illuminate the parking light(front and rear) on that side until you turn it off.

[goz_83]

A bad earth? Maybe. Thanks, I'll look at that.

I didn't know the indicator thing was Norma. Seems a bit odd, but certainly isn't an issue for me.

[Kace]

Indicator behaviour is indeed normal and it supposed to be employed when parking on dark roads or in precarious positions, so that you can illuminate the corner of your car and hopefully avoid some plank crashing into it.

[goz_83]

I'm not sure it would be effective on my fto. It would probably attract those planks you speak about. I would be tempted to have cctv installed in the car to catch the eijets, but I would bet that their reg would be just out of view, or covered in muck, so they couldn't be identified. Either that, or the Garda would take zero interest in chasing it up.

[goz_83]

I couldn't find the problem for the life of me. Had to leave into garage. 2 and a half hours later it was fixed. There was some water in the rear fuse box. That's probably why there was a starting problem a few weeks ago too. It's €130 I would have preferred not to spend, but I wouldn't have found the problem and they had their auto electrician work on it.

[mivecrx]

Strange place to find water. €130 wasn't too bad if they were at it over 2hrs. Did they just dry it out and replace fuses?

[goz_83]

Yeah i think they just cleaned it up. I have no idea how water could get in there. Even if it got in behind the light, the fuse board is mounted to the quarter panel. Anyway, i will check for signs of leakage to be sure.