VK taillights dead - anyone know where they commonly fail?

[synoptica]

Hey guys,

The VK decided that I no longer need the safety of having tailllights at nighttime, and as such they no longer come on with the headlights. I've checked the switch (most common point of failure) and it's fine (known good one substituted in) and as a precaution I went through and replaced every fuse (there were a lot that had blown that I'd substitued with the wrong ones on the side of the road...) so every fuse is good now, too.

The earth on the loom is fine, as all the other lights work as they should (brakes, reverse, indicators) and I recently re-wired the loom to fix up a few flaky-looking wires.

So is there another common point of failure for these, or am I best off just starting at the loom and working my way back?

Cheers,
- Chris.

[craigvk]

The only thing I can suggest is wire up a tempory earth wire in the boot from your tail lights earth wire and screw it into the chassis. VK's always have crap earths in the boot for the rear lights. Try that. If the lights start working, solder and heatshrink a wire and screw it into the chassis with a crimp lug.

[JD]

i would agree with craigvk that its not earthing right

[vkberlina]

This might seem like a silly question but have you checked the globes?
They are a duel fillament globe and one side can blow and the other be ok.

Also are your parker globes in your headlights coming on?

cheers
Scott

[craigvk]

AFAIK, there is 5 earths for the back that I am sure are all seperate until they meet to one star point at the front of the car.

There is the number plate but it might have a chassis earth I can't remember. The two tail lights and brake lights have seperate earths as do the indicators. At least I am sure of what I just said.

There is also the earth for where the trailer plug is too.

This rear earth problem is so damn common. I have heard just about everyone suffering from the issue.

I am actually beginning to think that the reason why the rear might have poor earths is because where it meets to one point in the engine bay, that must be where the problem might lie.

[synoptica]

This might seem like a silly question but have you checked the globes?
They are a duel fillament globe and one side can blow and the other be ok.

Also are your parker globes in your headlights coming on?

cheers
Scott

Yeah, first thing I checked - I realise they're dual filament

And yeah - I'm getting parkers... I think - I'll check.

Interestingly, I no longer get the headlight lamp in the dash display either...

[bezz]

My brake lights go out all the time due to a dodgy connector inside the boot. Its the one on the top of the boot, on the right side. From the outside it looks fine but inside it had melted and some connections weren't making contact anymore.

[Cane_It]

My brake lights go out all the time due to a dodgy connector inside the boot. Its the one on the top of the boot, on the right side. From the outside it looks fine but inside it had melted and some connections weren't making contact anymore.

I actually had this exact same problem on the weekend, I spliced wires into the earth wire eitherside of that harness you mentioned and ran them to a good solid earth in the rear panel in the boot, VKs display some strange tail light faults due to bad earthing.

[NORTI]

Yeah, first thing I checked - I realise they're dual filament

And yeah - I'm getting parkers... I think - I'll check.

Interestingly, I no longer get the headlight lamp in the dash display either...

When I had alt problem in the VK, turned out to be blown globe in the dash I pulled my hair out replacing alt & battery etc... & it came down to the blown globe breaking the circuit. Stupid holdens!



D.