You are driving down the road someone just has to overtake even though its probably not safe,they get in front of you and they brake and look, they have at least one brake bulb out.
Just an observation i see all the time.
Edited by Pugugly on 11/04/2009 at 19:33
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Its an attitude thing, poor driving skills, poor car care. How hard is it to check your brake lights reflected in a shop window or or bus / truck stopped behind you ?
Edited by Old Navy on 11/04/2009 at 11:57
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And the remaining one wouldn't come on at all if it wasn't automatic.
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Perhaps all motor vehicles should have an indication of failed bulbs on the fascia.
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The problem with failed bulb indicators comes back to attitude, MOT or service in xx months it will get fixed then.
Edited by Old Navy on 11/04/2009 at 16:12
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The problem with failed bulb indicators comes back to attitude MOT or service in xx months it will get fixed then.
And a reluctance by the police to pull drivers for it, unless of course it's close to Christmas and the breathalyser campaign's in full swing! ;-)
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Since I discovered by accident last year that the old Prelude (for some strange reason) doesn't have the usual Honda 'brake light bulb out' warning I have gone back to adding a weekly check to the levels, tyres, etc, list. Only takes a few seconds and if SWMBO isn't around I have a 10ft piece of alloy strip that enables me to push down the pedal through the open door while standing beside the back of the car. It isn't rocket science...
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Why can they not develop LED bulbs for brake lights? I mean a simple package with a few very bright LEDs all houses in a connector which is the same as a standard btrake light bulb?
I am wondering if I should just change the brake light bulbs on my car, they are only £1 each its better waiting for them to fail.
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If you look on a well known auction site under LED brake light bulb ( or Chav up my ride type items) you can get LED bulbs. Does not cure the problem of a dirty or bad earth though. And... they do not work with bulb out detectors.
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Having a light on the dash that tells you a brake light is out is a good idea, if it is clear that is what it means.
A friend's Lexus had the low brake fluid/handbrake on light come on whilst he was driving, pulled over checked the fluid and handbrake, all was fine. Worried that it might be something serious he calls out the AA. As it turns out the cause was a blown brake light bulb, rather embarrsing, although he would have had to buy a socket set or box spanner to change it anyway.
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The Passat can tell you when the screenwash is running low, but is unable to spot a blown brake light. I despair over German engineering sometimes.
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My 98 Mondeo has brake lights failed indicators on the dash.
Two little red images of lights but I have three light units .
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The Passat can tell you when the screenwash is running low but is unable to spot a blown brake light. I despair over German engineering sometimes.
You don't really expect them to admit that something might go wrong David, do you? ;-)
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I seem to remember reading some year ago that the future of lighting in cars was the light box- one source of intense light that could effectively be piped by glass fibre cable to wherever needed on the car. Seemed like a great idea which would do way with the the need for bulbs.
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I seem to remember reading some year ago that the future of lighting in cars was the light box-
that'll be another brilliant (expensive) innovation i'll be avoiding like the plague then.
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>>one source of intense light that could effectively be piped by glass fibre cable to wherever needed on the car.
That source would then become classed as a single point failure - with the effect that ALL the vehicle's lights fail. It sounds like a very poor idea to me, unless the light source can be made to be extremely robust.
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I'd guess it would have a backup system with a warning light to illustrate that it had switched to backup.
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IIRC the Corvette Stingray had fibre-optic light monitors in the late sixties
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dont worry about it, if you have a VW the brake light switch is broken anyway.
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"Having a light on the dash that tells you a brake light is out is a good idea,"
Should there be a second bulb to say that the failed bulb bulb has failed? :-)
JH
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I have a 10ft piece of alloy strip that enables me to push down the pedal through the open door while standing beside the back of the car. It isn't rocket science...
Shouldn't that be 3 metres in France ?
Bit over the top IMO ;-)
I have a 2ft piece of scrap timber that wedges between seat and pedal. It's used for checking car, caravan and trailer brake lights (though not at the same time).
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The more cossetted drivers get, the more complacent they get........................
Euro Ncap, ABS, Airbags, pre-tensioners etc = I am invincable / I will survive..............
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No, it's a UK-sourced car...;-)
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Perhaps all motor vehicles should have an indication of failed bulbs on the fascia.
I had a spate of brake light switch failures,the contacts were fouling for some reason.I wired an up an LED telltale on the dash so I would know if the switch failed.It has not since of course.
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I'd sooner follow a car which has one brake light bulb failed than one which has an earth fault which results in one rear light going out when the brakes are applied or something similarly odd.
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my original post was on the fact that these losers were filling my 2 second gap and the reason the brake light was out is because these people spend half their journeys on the brakes
i normally find its old bangers with the bad earths and usually owned by horsey types where the hay grows in the corners of the car
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Front brake lights can be a problem as well. Wrong or incorrectly fitted rear bulbs can cause all of the sidelamps to light up on brake application.
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I was prompted by this thread to carry out some experiments into testing brake lights.
I found that placing my Haynes manual on top of the brake pedal and then jamming the top of the book under the clutch pedal and the bottom under the throttle pedal was sufficient to operate the brake light switch so that I could walk to the back of the car to check the lights.
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sq
At last a use for a Haynes manual!
The old ones were great, but 'take to nearest dealer' aint no help!!!!
Edited by Pugugly on 13/04/2009 at 12:28
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I seem to see almost every VW golf has one brakelight...even new ones.
Seen quite a few cars that have both rear brakelights out and only the hi mounted one working..
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