Hi all, I'm after a bit of advice with an electrical fault on my 6n2 Polo.

I picked it up a week ago and it had a blown passenger side brake light. No problem - changed bulb, all working fine. A couple of days later it had blown again, then when I replaced the bulb the indicator light in the same cluster blew. Changed that - all fine again. Yesterday the brake bulb blew again, so I changed it and all was fine again. Then last night a mate told me the tail light in the same cluster was out. Took a look at it and drove home - when I got home there was no power going to any of the lights in the cluster - unplugged the cluster and swore at it, along with some vigorous blowing then plugged it back in - all lights now working (apart from the blown tail light obviously).

This morning I sprayed the contacts on the cluster and the plug with some switch cleaner just in case it's a dodgy connection that's causing this. I've also replaced the tail light and all is ok so far.

Anyone got any ideas why this is happening or which wires to check for any faults? Are there any known problems with any of the lighting wires rubbing on the shell and shorting? If so, where?

Any help appreciated!

Cheers,

Nick

Five things can cause bulbs to blow: old age (most common); vibration (like lamp holder not being secure); greasy finger marks, causing the bulb to overheat; cheap bulbs and finally, the charging voltage being too high. If it were the latter, I would have thought that a bulb in another lamp would have joined in the game by now.

Of course, an intermittent supply ( like your bad connection won't do them a lot of good, but I wouldn't think that it would cause them to 'go' as quickly as yours have done.

I hope that there is some help in there somewhere.

Regards.

Cool, thanks for the reply. I've changed the offending bulbs now for proper branded items (Lucas and Bosch) which I hope will over come the issue. I was previously using Halfords bulbs which I understand to be of lesser quality...

They're still working today but I'll see how I get on... :)

My mk1 Golf is never this much trouble!

Hello again Nick,

I once took on an agency for a company called Tiger Lamps, who sold bulbs at far lower prices than anyone else, with a guarantee that they would replace any that failed within ( I think) 12 months.

I finished up with boxes full of failed bulbs, and spent far too much time replacing customers faulty ones.

I don't know where Halfords' buy their own branded bulbs from, but you would think that they would be at least reasonable quality.

Hope that you get a reasonable life out of the new ones.

Regards.