Helpful - In case you see Check Rear Lights after releasing the brakes
#1
07-05-2016, 09:10 PM
Helpful - In case you see Check Rear Lights after releasing the brakes
Hi All,
I wanted to share a solved mystery with you in hopes that someone else might benefit. This is for X308, mine is a 2003. A few nights ago I started noticing that I would intermittently get the "Check Rear Lights" notification, with an odd pattern:
- Turn on the lights, everything fine
- Step on the brakes, everything fine
- Release the brakes, "Check Rear Lights"
- At this point the rear parking lights would be OUT. Not the side markers.
- Turn off the lights, turn them back on, parking lights are back on
You could repeat the whole thing from there. Parking lights went out after stepping on and then releasing the brakes.
After investigating, I found that if the left rear light harness was unplugged, the right harness would operate normally. Switch it with the right harness unplugged, and the problem would happen. But all the bulbs appear to work, right? Not right.
Take a look at the pictures - the left brake bulb had its bright filament terminal melt down - so that it was still operational but would cause a short with the low-level filament when it turned on!
Replacing this bulb solved the problem. But it was such an unobvious problem to have, I thought I'd write it up here for anyone else who might experience this odd light problem pattern.
Regards,
Garrison
I wanted to share a solved mystery with you in hopes that someone else might benefit. This is for X308, mine is a 2003. A few nights ago I started noticing that I would intermittently get the "Check Rear Lights" notification, with an odd pattern:
- Turn on the lights, everything fine
- Step on the brakes, everything fine
- Release the brakes, "Check Rear Lights"
- At this point the rear parking lights would be OUT. Not the side markers.
- Turn off the lights, turn them back on, parking lights are back on
You could repeat the whole thing from there. Parking lights went out after stepping on and then releasing the brakes.
After investigating, I found that if the left rear light harness was unplugged, the right harness would operate normally. Switch it with the right harness unplugged, and the problem would happen. But all the bulbs appear to work, right? Not right.
Take a look at the pictures - the left brake bulb had its bright filament terminal melt down - so that it was still operational but would cause a short with the low-level filament when it turned on!
Replacing this bulb solved the problem. But it was such an unobvious problem to have, I thought I'd write it up here for anyone else who might experience this odd light problem pattern.
Regards,
Garrison
#2
07-31-2016, 07:21 PM
Senior Member
Hi All,
I wanted to share a solved mystery with you in hopes that someone else might benefit. This is for X308, mine is a 2003. A few nights ago I started noticing that I would intermittently get the "Check Rear Lights" notification, with an odd pattern:
- Turn on the lights, everything fine
- Step on the brakes, everything fine
- Release the brakes, "Check Rear Lights"
- At this point the rear parking lights would be OUT. Not the side markers.
- Turn off the lights, turn them back on, parking lights are back on
You could repeat the whole thing from there. Parking lights went out after stepping on and then releasing the brakes.
After investigating, I found that if the left rear light harness was unplugged, the right harness would operate normally. Switch it with the right harness unplugged, and the problem would happen. But all the bulbs appear to work, right? Not right.
Take a look at the pictures - the left brake bulb had its bright filament terminal melt down - so that it was still operational but would cause a short with the low-level filament when it turned on!
Replacing this bulb solved the problem. But it was such an unobvious problem to have, I thought I'd write it up here for anyone else who might experience this odd light problem pattern.
Regards,
Garrison
I wanted to share a solved mystery with you in hopes that someone else might benefit. This is for X308, mine is a 2003. A few nights ago I started noticing that I would intermittently get the "Check Rear Lights" notification, with an odd pattern:
- Turn on the lights, everything fine
- Step on the brakes, everything fine
- Release the brakes, "Check Rear Lights"
- At this point the rear parking lights would be OUT. Not the side markers.
- Turn off the lights, turn them back on, parking lights are back on
You could repeat the whole thing from there. Parking lights went out after stepping on and then releasing the brakes.
After investigating, I found that if the left rear light harness was unplugged, the right harness would operate normally. Switch it with the right harness unplugged, and the problem would happen. But all the bulbs appear to work, right? Not right.
Take a look at the pictures - the left brake bulb had its bright filament terminal melt down - so that it was still operational but would cause a short with the low-level filament when it turned on!
Replacing this bulb solved the problem. But it was such an unobvious problem to have, I thought I'd write it up here for anyone else who might experience this odd light problem pattern.
Regards,
Garrison
#3
07-31-2016, 07:57 PM
Veteran Member
Just re-bent all lips a bit, so the bulbs are held tight, cleaned the contacts, sanded all bulb contacts clean, and installed everything with a spray of contact cleaner.
Problem solved for an other 2 years ...
#4
08-01-2016, 12:04 AM
Senior Member
#5
08-06-2016, 12:14 PM
Veteran Member
The following 2 users liked this post by Jhartz:
omgimali (08-06-2016),
ThatsNoMoon (08-12-2016)
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