What have I done? (help!)

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:41 pm

Today I finally got fed up of only having one headlight that worked and decided to see about replacing them both with brighter bulbs.

Reading SELOC it seemed a fairly easy job, even for a non-techie girl like myself.

And it was, ish.

A couple of broken nails and much fidding in the wheel arches later I managed to replace both lights.

However...

I seem to have gone from having both sidelights and only one dipped headlight working to having both headlights ok but only one sidelight!

Any ideas for what I've done to mess up the sidelights? (I even put the old working bulb back in and still no sidelights)

Help!

Mr Momo · Post by **Mr Momo** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:54 pm

Brighter bulbs ? Higher wattage (i.e. rally bulbs) or just the improved lighting only (e.g. Osrams ?) If more wattage, it might be a fuse issue.

Someone more experienced will be along in a second....

BiggestNizzy · Post by **BiggestNizzy** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:56 pm

hmmm, sounds like you have broken it.

if it's not the bulbs then it has to be the wiring, can you put a multi-meter on it ?

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:09 pm

Pull the bulb holder out turn the side lights on and put a new bulb in.

Wiggle it around see if it works. If it does then get it working and stick it back in. if you can't then check that both rear red lights work. If a fuse has gone one of them will be out too.

Edin430 · Post by **Edin430** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:53 pm

Flip the bulb around...

I'm sure you can put the sidelights in the wrong way!

Post by **campbell** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:34 pm

Wiring / sockets for sidelights can be a bit dicky. Just only use your headlamps, and you'll be fine. That's what I do

s333fee · Post by **s333fee** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:04 pm

give the contacts a clean in the side light holder, make sure it is not powered up when you do it or you will blow the fuse, sometimes they get corroded and a newblub won't work till they are cleaned. this happened to us last month when replacing ours.

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:09 pm

Working in IT I'm used to the whole "leave it for a while and see if it fixes itself" thing but I never expected it to apply to cars!

It was definitely not working this morning, but by the time I'd got to work it was all back and working properly!

Go figure

r055 · Post by **r055** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:15 pm

puffin wrote:Working in IT I'm used to the whole "leave it for a while and see if it fixes itself" thing but I never expected it to apply to cars!

It was definitely not working this morning, but by the time I'd got to work it was all back and working properly!

Go figure

did you switch it off and on again!?