help with electrics on road lights please

[Carriemay]

Hi, new member here, hoping that there will be someone out in the wonderful world of cyberspace that will be able to help with our dilemma

we have a new to us 2008 Fendt Platin caravan and on our first outing we thought that the road lights were a little bit suspect and on our second trip out we decided that they were. problem is they light up but are as good as a glo-worm. electrics seem to be ok. can anyone out there shed any light on our problem as we are due to hit the road again late May and unless it is sunny we will be in a little bit of trouble!!

look forward to the replies, many thanks

 

[brianjw47]

B) Hi Carrie,

Unless you have a multimeter and a knowledge of car/caravan road electrics, don't mess avout , get a local qualified towbar installer round to sort things out.

There are a variety of things that may be wrong and it is generally quicker and safer to go down this route.

From what you say, it sounds like the return feed is not making a good connection but a multimeter and test set would sort things out.

Happy Caravaning,

Brianjw47.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I agree with Brian, Its a common failing with many caravan lights, the 0V return connections seem to rust or corrode.

No harm to disconnect the car and carefully remove the lenses from the caravan lights, and check the wiring behind the bulbs for rust. remover the bulbs, clean the bases and a very light spray of WD40 (or equivalent) replace the bulbs and lenses and check operation with the car. - it may do the trick. Otherwise if your not electrically savvy refer it to a wiring expert.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Carrie

Additionally buy an Electrical Contact spray.
Spray it on all the plugs and sockets.It cleans and re etches the contact surfaces. The 12N black plug and sockets contains split male "prongs" which close up with use. Open them up a bit with a small screw driver.

 

[Carriemay]

Hi thanks for the reply, I do have my very own sparky and had used multimeter shows only 11v at the bulb so there seems to be a voltage drop somewhere nothing obviously corroded but he will check and make sure. I may well be back if this doesn't do trick. Many thanks

 

[Gozza]

Something else you could try is to take the plug off the caravan, trim the wires back a centimetre or so and refit - whenever I've had a problem like the one you describe, it's because the ends of the wires, where they go into the screw terminals in the plug, have gone a bit manky over time. Remaking those connections with a fresh bright bit of wire exposed has always sorted it out for me.

The usual warnings apply - you need fairly nimble fingers and if you're over thirty you'll probably need your reading glasses on, but the main thing to look out for is that you put every wire back in the same hole it came from! As long as you can achieve that, at the very worst you won't make things worse than they are now and you'll have to get the pro in, which you were going to do anyway. But it's very satisfying to solve a problem yourself that you were going to call a professional in for, and you might one day be glad of the experience if you find yourself having to solve a similar problem on a Bank Holiday Monday, on a caravan site in the middle of nowhere, and you have to sort the lights before you can go home!

 

[Gozza]

Just had another thought, if all the road lights are affected you may be able to achieve some improvement by just doing what I said above with the earth wiring. If your caravan is wired conventionally, that'll be the thickest wire in the plug, should be white, and goes to pin 3 whether you have 7N or 13 pin.

If you have 13 pin then there's also an earth on pin 13 but that shouldn't affect road lights.

EDIT and another thought - if you have a multimeter, which it seems you do, have you checked the voltage on the socket at the back of the car? If the voltage here is the same as the voltage at the caravan light points, the problem isn't with the caravan!

 

[Carriemay]

hi, this all seems to make sense, so that is a job for this long hot and sunny weekend that is approaching, nothing better than spending a bank holiday in the caravan compound!! just what we bought the van for. will let you know the outcome. many thanks