bulb failure warning

[DaveG]

2004 Vectra 2.2 elite estate
46,000 miles

9th Sep 2008

Over the last week the car has separately and erroneously reported bulb failure.

Firstly it was the rear left sidelight and when I responded ok to the message it did not reappear.

A couple of days later it reported that the rear right brake light had failed. Again I responded ok to the message. A couple of times on the same journey the message came up again. It has not appeared again.

Yesterday it reported that the rear right reversing lamp had failed. I had to respond ok to the message about a dozen times before the message stopped reappearing. I’ve done three short journeys since and the message has not returned.

Any suggestions as to the cause of the problem?

Thanks,

Dave

[Craig1985]

check for a loose earth in rear lights may be?

[DaveG]

Aye thanks. I did think on that but the fact that it was first one side then the other made me doubt it. But unless there are any other ideas I'll certainly clean up the earth connections.
Thanks Dave

[Big Dave]

Also remove each bulb and clean the contacts on both the bulbs and the spring metal contacts in the light clusters.

[DaveG]

Yes but is it not odd that it should happen on both sides around the same time?

[wickedwillie]

I had a weird problem manifest itself about a year ago on my rear lights. Two bulbs had making and breaking filaments and the fault mainifested intermittently during normal driving i.e. during vibrations. This caused all sorts of erroneous readings of bulb failures. Eventually solved it by checking all bulbs with a resistance meter and than again after given the bulbs a good shake to simulate vibration. Results, 2 bulbs had making/breaking filaments. The 2 bulbs were replaced and no further problems encountered.

[DaveG]

Warnings on bulb failure reappeared.

Because of the hassle in accessing the bulbs in the tailgate replaced all six bulbs. Problem appears to have been solved.
Then (a week later) as an extra, in case there was some minor corrosion, put a wee dab of vaseline on all the connections.
Will leave it another week before putting the tailgate trim back on.

Dave

[DaveG]

Realised that I've left the thread unfinished - sorry.

Three months after replacing all bulbs, cleaning all connections and adding a wee drop of vaseline fault message has not reappeared.

(Still find it odd though that it appeared for for several bulbs at the same time.)

Dave

[Tadpole]

Cheers Dave glad thats sorted you out, good old tip the vaseline & electrics.

[madman]

i was getting failure notices on all offside rear bulbs . i took them all out and cleaned the connectors. replaced the holders back in the tailgate with a dab of vaseline on. now none off the tailgate bulbs are working at all. whats the best course of action?
new bulb holders?
help please cos its getting on my nerves having to click 3 or 4 times to cancel all the warning
cheers