MK 7.5 Fiesta Reversing lights not working

[D00B]

Hi everyone, I am new here and would like some help from what could be better knowledge than the dealers.

I have bought my son a MY14 Fiesta Facelift from Evans Halshaw Wrexham, after collecting the vehicle we noticed the reverse lights did not come on when engaging reverse. The car went back and we were told that a switch was replaced.

A couple of nights later and the same again, no reverse lights. I'm aware they are not a legal requirement, but when you live in the middle of no where with no street lighting, reversing into the drive can become a real challenge.

Anyway, the car is taken back to the dealer and they claim there is no fault and nothing more they can do, I collect the car and low and behold, the lights fail to come on!

I decide to take the car to Evans Halshaw in Chester.... hey ho! the lights seems to work and there is nothing they can do as no fault found.

As before, the car comes home and that night the same again, by this time I'm ready to explode.

The car goes back to Chester again and I demand that Chester speak to Wrexham to find out what was "repaired" before, this is done and a fault is found.........

Wait for it, it's not over yet, can you guess where I'm going with this...? That's right, car is collected and the lights fail again. He is now using his hazard lights as the only light source when backing up.

His brake lights work fine along with this indicators. I have checked the bulbs, they are fine. I will check the fuse again, but I should imagine that'll be fine too.

Has anyone had this problem with their car? Where do I begin to get this fixed? I'm tempted to take the care back and get either my money back or replacement.

Clearly this is intermittent, but doesn't make it any less a pain. 

It's my lads pride and joy, so it's something I would like fixed.... for good!

 

Any thoughts or help would be great.

[JoJo2222]

I believe there is a switch on the front of the gearbox what enables the light to come on when reverse is selected. 

[Tdci-Peter]

11 hours ago, D00B said:

Where do I begin to get this fixed? I'm tempted to take the care back and get either my money back or replacement.

Clearly this is intermittent, but doesn't make it any less a pain.

Clearly the garages are not interested. I assume it is warranty work, and they just want you to ... go away! If you threaten to demand a refund, it might wake them up.

I do not have the Fiesta wiring info, so I can only guess. But basically it is a switch and a bulb. There may be a relay in the circuit, and in some recent cars (like Mk3 Focus), the signal actually goes via 3 major electronic modules, the pcm, the instrument cluster and the bcm. Faults in these modules are less likely, but possible.

If it was not under warranty, and if the switch is accessible, I would start there, remove the connector, and link its pins to simulate the switch. And work back, or forward from there.

It could be a gearbox tolerance or adjustment problem, not actuating the switch reliably. Or a dodgy connector or wiring fault. If it does go through the electronic systems, then a good diagnostic aid should be able to test & maybe simulate it.

If it gets worse (before the warranty expires), then it would be easier to make the garage take it seriously. But that is going to be annoying for you, I know. I don't know what else to say.

Peter.

[Si2014]

Hi did you ever work out what it was - just done pretty much the same thing with my son and it has an intermittent reversing light (more off than on). It may be complicated by having reversing sensors (seem to not work at the same time)?

Fuse and bulbs ok... any ideas?

Thanks

Simon

[Tdci-Peter]

14 hours ago, Si2014 said:

It may be complicated by having reversing sensors (seem to not work at the same time)?

The same switch that turns on the reverse light also turns on the reverse sensors. Assuming you have a manual gearbox, there will be a simple mechanical switch mounted through the side of the gearbox. This may just actuate the light directly, or sometimes via a relay.

It is Item 15520 in the pic, from: https://ford.7zap.com/en/car/59/no/66/1915/16938/73431/

First step is to remove and test the switch. But these failures on fairly new Fiestas suggest a tolerance problem between gearbox internal parts and the switch. There may be not much that can be easily done about this, gearbox overhauls are such a major job that I would just resort to installing and wiring up a manual switch if replacing the in-built switch did not work.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REVERSE-LIGHT-SWITCH-FITS-FORD-B-MAX-C-MAX-MONDEO-MK4-FIESTA-MK6-FOCUS-MK2-MK3/272611969772?fits=Car+Make%3AFord&hash=item3f78f08aec:g:syAAAOSwc-tY3XnF