Help. Reverse lights only work when boot lid is Up.

[Mad Sheep]

Reverse lights stopped working a couple of months ago now I am trying to fix. The problem is that they work when boot lid is Up but when it is about half way down they don't. I can continually trigger this by repeatedly moving boot lid up and down. Reverse lights that only work when boot lid is Up are obviously no help to me.

Any ideas on what's happening and how I could get them working again?

 

[_R_J_K_]

Sounds like your tail light loom is exposed somewhere and is shorting out. Try tracing back the wiring from both lights and the light switch for the boot and see if there's a common place where they meet.

 

[VPRob]

So you have the transmission in reverse and the reversing lights only come on when you lift the boot lid?
If that's a yes then it sounds like the boot hinge is moving the wiring and has fatigued the internal wire and it comes apart (internally) as you lower the boot lid thus moving the wiring. All I can suggest is having a close look at the wiring path to find a point of interference and movement. I would have thought the reverse, tail and brake light wiring should be completely independant of the boot hinges but it may have been moved sometime.