Need help with lights

[Phippo ghia]

Need help. My reverse light does not seem to be working, changed the bulb for a new one and still not working. Also my left break light seems to work then not work so not sure what the problems could be. 

Any help appreciated. 

[TangoDaz]

Hi model year?

[Phippo ghia]

Sry should have stated. It's a 2002 focus ghia tdci.

[J87]

could possibly be the switch on the gearbox. have you tried another bulb in it just to make sure its not the bulb that's faulty

[isetta]

on my focus it was the connector on the switch on the front of the gearbox (reach under front of car). Just pulled it off and put it back on and it was fine.

I had wasted time messing about with the bulb and bub holder first. I had assumed the problem was in the lamp as I had a problem with lots of damp and water in the lamp over a long period of time (mk1 focus)

brake light - you need to get bulb out. could be a bad connection on bulb, or could be faulty bulb - they do sometimes go like this when they work intermittently. You need to remove the whole lamp unit from the car to get to the bulbs. (if I recall correctly, but check- there is a screw on the outside (accessible near boot seal when you open boot) and one on the inside of the car aroubnd the back of the lamp also to catch you out

[TangoDaz]

I've heard that the brake light can be caused by a bad earth I may pay you to take a look at the loom but this will require removing some trim 

[ScaniaPBman]

Quote

On 02/04/2017 at 3:27 PM, Phippo ghia said:

Need help. My reverse light does not seem to be working, changed the bulb for a new one and still not working. Also my left break light seems to work then not work so not sure what the problems could be. 

As others have done, lets consider that there are two seperate problems.

Considering the on/off brakelight I had exactly the same problem.The cause was a faulty contact inside the bulb holder, difficult to track down if you are not familiar with that type of failure. I was round all relevant earth points, fuses and belling the wires before I found the cause.

This was reported in this topic

 

And here is the relevant advice

I had similar troubles to you with the rear side/brake light bulb. Sometimes only the side light would work, then both or neither. The power was there on both wires when it should be.

The problem was the little earth tag inside the bulb holder. It's supposed to press on the side of the bulb metal base to complete the electrical circuit to earth. On mine the tag had broken off and was making intermittent contact. The fix was easy, I removed  a bit of copper from a cable and rammed it placed it carefully in the gap as I inserted the bulb. That was 3 months ago and it's still lighting up well.

ScaniaPBman.

PS I seem to have screwed up the quote formatting above, but the info is there!

[Phippo ghia]

Chears for the reply guys will try the connector first. Does anyone have a pic of where it is or is it accessible from inside the car. And will try a new brake bulb.