Freelander 05, rear lights

Hi all,

My rear lights aren't working in my 2005 3 door, started with the right and now it's both. They still light up when I press the brakes.
I have checked the bulbs, the fuse, the connectors for corrosion and sprayed with WD40, checked the earthing points, disconnected, cleaned and covered in vaseline, but still not a blink.

What do I do next& what should i look for? not very electrically minded so any help appreciated and simple instructions would be a great help.

Tried to download rave cd but laptop died and can't put it on iPad, the boss would kill me!

have you removed the sides of the boot to check the wiring behind them?

I have taken off the panels but everything seems to be connected up, not really sure what I'm supposed to be looking at/for though!

Click the search button above, I can't as I'm on my mobile

Have done, can't get anything that makes any sense? That's why I went through what I have done, coz first thing I thought of was bad earth, then connectors! Like I said I'm a bit slow with electrics & what to do! Thanks anyway!

Ok someone will pick this up tomorrow
, just a thought you did check all the fuses?

hi

it as said most likely a connector, where the connector either plugs into the rear light cluster or maybe where it connects in the main loom

have u got a multimeter,

if u eliminate things one by one , ie see if you indicators work, rear lights, stops etc, reversing, fogs etc, can the go through them one by one as ur not electrically minded u may not feel confident but just by doing it one stage at a time and work through each one

check all ur fuses first, then see if the bulbs are all ok.

then if u take out the bulb holder is it earthing ok

then if u go through all that and dont get anywhere there are plenty of people who can help

if u got a cheap multimeter can then at least test the rear light cluster to see if u have power there first, if not u know to work backwards towards the fuse box

could be a bad earth, no power coming out of the fuse box, a bad connector etc

hopefully that may help and don't wish to tell u how to suck eggs but start by seeing what does and doest work, start with the basics and go from there and as ive said theres plenty of people around to help

if u do a search on here there is a huge amount of info that may lead u in the right direction

hope that helps

gary

Thanks Gary,

Have tried a few of those steps but I will go at it from scratch again at the weekend, like that the brake lights still work and I dont do a lot of night driving just want to sort out niggles so I can get it tested. My brother has a multimeter and would be sharper at the electrical side of thing, so I might call see him and go through it over the weekend!

Over the weekend my brother & I tested the power coming to the rear lights.
The red/orange wire on the drivers side and the red black on the passenger side had no power coming to the connector. There was power coming to the plugs at the junction box (I think that is what its called) on drivers side.
Must I take off the bumper to trace the wires to the connector for anything? Is there another way?
Thanks again

has it got or had a towbar fitted, and some dodgy wiring to go with it?

Yes, I think that might have something to do with it, my brother thought the there was an unusal grounding connection going from right side live the left side earth. I have hippo a year & previous owner said towbar was on it before he bought it.

that reminds me of many years ago, when I brought the wife a fiesta , and the owner said oh! we ran over something last night , when we got it home ,just about it was out of fuel so I nipped out and got some in the morning it was all over the floor . they had put something like a nail through the petrol tank to get the fuel out , if they had said I would have given them a few quid more not to do it. the morel is never take anything people say when you are buying of them especially a car.

Thanks for the input, it made me smile, even if only because I'm not the only mug out there!

Finally got to the bottom of this, this evening I took the bumper off and found that the red/orange & red/black wires, power feeds to rear lights had split between about an inch from connector for red orange and about an inch before it goes into the casing attached to the bumper. I just tied them back together and taped em up, sorted!

Murphys law though, bloody light over number plate has blown now so have to look at that next!