Car wouldn't run because of a bulb!?

[Piston broke]

I popped out to our local shop yesterday morning, got some supplies and jumped back in the car but it wouldn't start! On the dash I saw the car and spanner legend in the rev counter display. After a couple of tries I got the engine started but no drive, the accelerator pedal was dead. Managed to get the car out of the shops car park and around the corner to a layby, by driving in second gear on tickover revs. Once there in the shade I could see the centre GID had turn signal bulb failure showing, (at shop the sun was shining directly on it so I hadn't noticed this at the time).

anyway, having been a boy scout in my youth I had a spare bulb kit to hand in my boot, fitted a new front o/s indicator bulb and hey presto! Car was fine again.

2 things though, first is that normal for vectras that they can't be driven if a bulb blows? Second, if I'm doing 70 on the motorway and signal to overtake and the indicator bulb blows, am I going to find myself in the outside lane rapidly slowing down, with either no accelerator or a dead engine!

[bigmac]

Never heard of that at al must of been just a coincident that your bulb went same time as a fault came up

[Piston broke]

Never heard of that at al must of been just a coincident that your bulb went same time as a fault came up

I know what you mean but if was a coincidence that the 2 happend simultaneously I would not have expected the fault to clear as soon as the bulb was replaced. A very strange occurrance!

[Birchy63]

A short while ago, there was someone saying that fitting LED sidelights had caused a whole array of faults on his car... It does sound like a coincidence though!

[Exclusive BV]

Sounds like the CanBus network threw a bit of a wobbly there.

Queston: Do you indicators flash when you centrally lock your car?

I am just trying to work out the point at which the bulb blew

[Hyperhart]

A short while ago, there was someone saying that fitting LED sidelights had caused a whole array of faults on his car... It does sound like a coincidence though!

That might of been me, my case was with leds in the sidelights and the number plate lamps. Was putting the car into limp mode due to too low voltage as leds only run 1.5w instead of the usual 5w but i still had drive.

[Jezzy]

I popped out to our local shop yesterday morning, got some supplies and jumped back in the car but it wouldn't start! On the dash I saw the car and spanner legend in the rev counter display. After a couple of tries I got the engine started but no drive, the accelerator pedal was dead. Managed to get the car out of the shops car park and around the corner to a layby, by driving in second gear on tickover revs. Once there in the shade I could see the centre GID had turn signal bulb failure showing, (at shop the sun was shining directly on it so I hadn't noticed this at the time).

anyway, having been a boy scout in my youth I had a spare bulb kit to hand in my boot, fitted a new front o/s indicator bulb and hey presto! Car was fine again.

2 things though, first is that normal for vectras that they can't be driven if a bulb blows? Second, if I'm doing 70 on the motorway and signal to overtake and the indicator bulb blows, am I going to find myself in the outside lane rapidly slowing down, with either no accelerator or a dead engine!

This will determine it for sure: now that your car works fine, take out the O/S indicator bulb and see if the car still works.

[m8internet]

Sounds similar to the issue I had last winter when my car refused to apply power no matter how much gas I applied
The problem was never traced and I could only assume the Traction Control was cutting out the gas

[Piston broke]

I can only think it was the canbus having a fit because of the bulb fault. The indicators do flash on lock & unlock. Also, although the bulb showed as blown in the GID and was scorched on one side, the fillament was still intact. Probably high resistance caused a can glitch. I have taken the new indicator bulb out again but the car didn't repeat the same fault, accelerator works and the car drives fine with the bulb removed. A bit of a mystery as to how it would have such a terminal impact on the cars ability to drive.


As an afterthought, I'm going to ring my wife and see if the old bulb is still at home. If it is I will try popping it back in again to see if the fault shows up again.

[stevedee3]

You could remove all the bulbs and the car will still start. Maybe whatever caused your failure to start also caused the bulb warning?