Multiple light system faults displaying on dashboard - FIX

Hi this topic has been discussed on faults forum, here the solution is posted here, with photos and an explanation.

Dashboard shows faults with the rear lights, but lamps are working.

This can be caused by a faulty or burned connector to the rear light cluster. The solution is to bypass the faulty connection with a new wire.

Faulty connection:

To access the rear cluster connector, follow these instructions

Then follow these photographs showing how to bypass the faulty connection.

The self tapping screw makes a secure electrical connection to the existing track. You could solder the wire to the track, but a self tapper is quicker and easier.

New earth wire is clamped between the plastic and metal track. Adding a crimp eyelet would make a neater job (will be completed later).

See also: How to make successful crimp connections because the electrical connections carry a fair bit of current with the lamps lit.

Drill a hole to feed the new wire through the plastic lamp holder

refit the foam weather seal.

Cut the green and yellow wire from close to the plug and scotch lock or crimp the new wire to the existing loom that has been cut.


Joe

A solution to the problem found in this topic.

Thanks so much for the tip!

This worked a treat.

The dealer had apparently (doubtful) replaced my cluster the other week and my beeping/warning light came back again. I was nearly pulling my hair out until I read this thread. The solution to the problem seems so obvious considering so many multiple error messages involved but since this was my first European car I was afraid it was the ECU. One does not, however, expect such poor planning/engineering from an international car manufacturer

Here are some pics. I kept the original earth connection via the connector, however I added another wire from the cluster common earth to the car body. I used a nice thick household electrical earth cable.

Hopefully this may help more people with the same problem.

This fix worked well for me, although my problem originated with the cruise control!
When cruise was on and I indicated it would turn it off! Eventually got worse and didn't work at all.
A friend mentioned that my rear lights were dim (had the problem a few years ago, bad connection at a plug) so carried out this mod.
I actually soldered a wire to the neg plate of each cluster and managed to feed the wire through the back so I didn't have to drill any holes!
If you remove the inner side panels (where the rear seats belt feed through) under there is a handy earth point (on both LH and RH sides) this is where I connected my wiring to earth.
So happy days!

Thanks to all contributers, great site, has helped me loads!

PS Sorry, no photos

Albi62 wrote:If you remove the inner side panels (where the rear seats belt feed through) under there is a handy earth point (on both LH and RH sides) this is where I connected my wiring to earth.

Thanks for that information! I will see if we can get some photos of the earth point you describe if anyone didn't feel confident enough to chop into the wiring

Thanks for this info. The intermittent fault has been bugging me for several months, especially cold & wet days. It only started after I had some driving lights installed by an auto electrician and so I did a BSI reset to no avail.
I did this today and problem solved.

Thanks

My car had the same problem, and I copied this solution. As someome else says, its a shame that such a large car maker can't design a better, more durable plug and socket that can take the current flow that occurs when several bulbs are illuminated.
Thanks for your ideas.

There is also the option of replacing this plug:

With a new loom connector. if you wanted to go down that route, the parts are here on ebay, new These replacement connectors will need soldering and heatsink or a quality crimp connection to complete the repair.