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D2 - Lights Headlights, xenons, foglights. Everything outside the car that glows

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Old 7th February 2013, 05:12 PM
HPsauce HPsauce is offline
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Location: Chilterns, almost over HS2!
Posts: 8,366
Default One indicator is dimmer than the rest!

Weird this.
I bought some silvered bulbs for the front indicators, to eliminate the "fried egg" look.
After fitting them I noticed that the nearside one looked dimmer, but thought at first it was just an illusion because that side was sunlit.

Today I checked again in overcast conditions and there's a definite difference, so I took the bulbs out, checked resistance (identical) and swapped them. Still dim on the nearside.
I also made sure the sockets were clean and shiny and the bulbs well-seated. Wiring appears to be in good condition.

Only thing I didn't check was the actual voltage in the socket, it's a bit tricky.

The side repeaters and rear indicators all appear to be fine, no imbalance.
Any thoughts?
__________________
2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions, ski hatch retrofit; extended leather. Aftermarket DVB-T, reversing camera and full XCarlink (Bluetooth etc.).
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation". (A much rarer model than a D2 S8 by the way!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one!
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. AgateGrey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course. (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon, Auto-dim mirror, Leather, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!
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  #2  
Old 13th February 2013, 10:35 AM
HPsauce HPsauce is offline
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Location: Chilterns, almost over HS2!
Posts: 8,366
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HPsauce View Post
Wiring appears to be in good condition.
The indicator is getting worse, sometimes dim sometimes dead with "double-speed" flashing on that side. Made some progress today, but no solution, advice needed.

I've pretty much convinced myself (by swapping, wiggling etc.) that the problem is the contact between the plug on the end of the wiring and the bulbholder.
But I can't get the bloody thing off to investigate/clean and there's not a lot of slack or space to work in - getting grazed knuckles!

Looking at the plug there seem to be a couple of protruberances that "might" be latches of some sort, but (especially in the cold making plastics brittle) I don't want to break anything by forcing the wrong part and it's not really obvious.

Does anyone know how to detach the front indicator bulbholder from the plug safely?
__________________
2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions, ski hatch retrofit; extended leather. Aftermarket DVB-T, reversing camera and full XCarlink (Bluetooth etc.).
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation". (A much rarer model than a D2 S8 by the way!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one!
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. AgateGrey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course. (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon, Auto-dim mirror, Leather, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!

Last edited by HPsauce; 13th February 2013 at 10:38 AM.
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  #3  
Old 14th February 2013, 01:33 PM
HPsauce HPsauce is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Chilterns, almost over HS2!
Posts: 8,366
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OK, all sorted.
Turns out it was a dodgy bulbholder which "succumbed" to a bit of bending and scraping.
The bulbholders, for those that don't know, firstly come out of the headlight by rotating about 30 degrees in the socket, then the wiring connector has a funny shaped rectangular object at the wiring end that when pushed away from the bulb releases a catch. (There's what looks like another simpler catch on one side but it isn't.)

First I swapped them to discover the dimness moved with the holder - result!
Then I took them indoors and looked more closely.
One one the side contact was less firm, in fact the bulb wobbled, so I bent it to match the other. Still not great on the car though.
Looking closely (my old eyes aren't good at this) I could see that the contact area was corroded, probably from being loose and intermittent, so I scraped it down to shiny metal and combined with the firmer contact that solved it.

On to the next problem now.....
__________________
2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions, ski hatch retrofit; extended leather. Aftermarket DVB-T, reversing camera and full XCarlink (Bluetooth etc.).
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation". (A much rarer model than a D2 S8 by the way!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one!
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. AgateGrey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course. (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon, Auto-dim mirror, Leather, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!
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  #4  
Old 14th February 2013, 02:13 PM
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sloss sloss is offline
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Location: Aberdeen
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On to the next problem now.....
You have more problems.....
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