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Ho hum....SWBO's Omega estate is due for an MOT next week; just noticed that the LED brake light built into the rear spoiler only has a couple of the dozen or so LEDs working. Do I need to get my soldering iron out pronto; or is this OK for the MOT?
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From motuk.co.uk
"High level stop lamps
These are lamps usually fitted in the rear window or boot spoiler of a vehicle and may consist of a number of light sources .
The lamp is one unit, so as long as at least one of the light sources illuminates when the brake pedal is pressed the lamp is deemed to be working."
Looks like you will be OK, but as this is a 'safety feature' perhaps it should be fixed anyway.....
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Ah hah!! That explains why my Rover passed okay despite having two bulbs blown in its CHMSL. It didn't bother me that I needed to buy a couple of bulbs, but I was peeved the MoT man never even brought it to my attention.
Surprising that so many LEDs should have failed in your unit. LEDs are normally much more reliable than bulbs. Perhaps there's something else at work here? eg water leak into lamp
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Just another thought:
Colleague was deemed partially at fault when someone rear ended him because his brake lights weren't working properly. A cautionary tale for us all, perhaps?
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the LED brake light built into the rear spoiler only has a couple of the dozen or so LEDs working.
Are you sure they\'re LEDs? I once fitted an aftermarket brakelight to the parcel shelf of my old cavalier. The lens gave the impression they were LEDs, but inside were four 5 watt bulbs, each lighting up certain segments of the lens.
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I'm pretty sure they're LEDs DD; because there is still light coming from a part of the red strip - I suspect they are failing due to water ingress; as I wouldn't expect LEDs to fail in this scenario. I want to fix it anyway, as agreed it's a safety issue, but I was trying to find out whether I need to fix it now, or wait a couple of weeks.
Anyway I've just spent a merry hour trying to get the pfd spoiler off so i can check the unit out; but it appears that you need to remove the rear windscreen to remove the very very pink very very fluffy dice brake light
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I'm pretty sure they're LEDs DD
In that case, from memory of repairing a Vectra LED brake light, the LEDs were all soldered to a PCB and some of the LEDs had dry joints where they were no longer soldered to the tracks. The last 5 or so LEDs didn't work at all - the track on the PCB had cracked in two. The fault was most probably caused by vibration.
As for removing the brake light from the spoiler, is there not a groove or two around the outer edge so that you can pop a screwdriver blade in and prise it out?
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Yeah; i've got a feeling that I'll end up levering it off; but there are definately two screws in the bottom of the brake light fixing it to the spoiler, so i'll proably have to araldite it back in :-/.
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Thinking about this challenge over a beer; hopefully I can remove the brake light assembly by clamping a screwdriver bit in an adjustable spanner, to give a high torque right angled screwdriver. We'll see tomorrow.
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Well the saga continues : gave up trying to unscrew the unit & did what DD suggested & levered it out with a screwdriver anyway. There are no less than 50 LEDs in there - and the unit has been 'sealed for life' by Irmscher.
As an engineer I regard 'sealed for life' as a challenge of course; so I'll take it to bits today. Might even phone up vauxhall for a laugh to see what mind blowing price they come up with for a new one - given that Halfords & the like do aftermarket ones for 15 quid ish.
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I was under the impression it was only main two brake lights that had to be working.ie high level didn`t come into it.I would be interested to hear if anyone can bring me up to date
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Was mech1
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Hi
I once spotted on my friends Xsara that there was a slight delay (0.1s), noticable if you watch carefully though, between the high-level brake light coming on and the cluster lights.
I had two theories for this:
a) A relay drives the cluster lights and takes a deci-second or two to cut in
or
b) LEDs light up and come to temperature much quicker than ordinary bulbs, since there is no filament to heat up. Just a thought to see if you've got LED or filament.
(PS, I don't actually know whether the Xsara has bulb or LED raised brake light, so I've probably written a load of drivvle :-( )
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...b) LEDs light up and come to temperature much quicker than ordinary bulbs, since there is no filament to heat up. Just a thought to see if you've got LED or filament...
Of course usually smaller size and lower current draw are other benefits in many applications, but LEDS not needing to heat up before working is indeed the reason why they appear to react more quickly than filament bulbs. Along with a longer service life than filament lamps, this constitutes the main safety benefit of LED lighting.
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Steve,
Also from motuk.co.uk
"Vehicles first used on or after 1 January 1971 must be fitted with at least two obligatory stop lamps.
Additional stop lamps
Any additional stop lamps fitted and connected must be tested. Where extra lamps are fitted and there is doubt as to whether they are connected, the benefit of this doubt should be given to the presenter"
So if your high level is connected it must work, but if it is not connected it can be U/S. Interesting.....
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Well hopefully I can remove & repair the pfd thing this evening; if not then maybe I should just tape over the damn thing & glue a new one in the rear screen - I think vauxhall only fitted them in the spoiler for one model year :-/
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>>Where extra lamps are fitted and there is doubt as to whether they are connected, the benefit of this doubt should be given to the presenter"
>>So if your high level is connected it must work, but if it is not connected it can be U/S. Interesting.....
No, if it is connected & not working but the tester cannot be bothered to find out if it is connected (i.e. there is doubt), then it can be U/S.
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Less than 6 lights-almost certainly bulbs.If more,then LED's.
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