Top rear and front marker lights not working

[foggydave]

Hi I have a 2010 Coachman Pastiche and although the rear light cluster works the top side rear and lower front marker lights are not working.
Do these lights normally run through a different fuse or circuit than the rear light cluster?
Thanks.

 

[Woodentop]

Are they LED or bulb?

 

[Robert_374373903]

This is probably not in your case but last week before setting off my lights would not come on . I then went to every connection and whilst pushing more firmly on the 13m plug they all came on.

 

[foggydave]

Hi They are old fashioned filament lights. The wiring diagram is not very informative. The lighting diagram shows the line in with spurs off to different bulbs. The fact that the rear brake/reverse/indicator/rear light cluster shows that power is going to the van but not to the small marker lights mentioned.

 

[Thingy]

Sounds awfully like a car to caravan connection issue. BTW, I would put absolutely no faith in any wiring diagram concerning a caravan.

 

[Jcloughie]

My guess is, as there are two circuits for the side lights, left and right. that the marker lights might piggy back onto one of those.

I would check the left and right side lights within the rear clusters and take it from there.

If you have 12S look at the connections on pins 5 and 7. Also the same pin numbers for 13 pin plugs.

John

 

[Thingy]

OK, if this is any help. On my Swift, and I assume your coachman is similar, I have a bank of 12v fuses fitted to the PSU. I also have a smaller fuseboard that runs the road lighting, i.e. brake tail fog lights. Having looked at my manual< i can see that the smaller roadlight fuseboard does not mention marker lights. However, on the larger bank as fitted to the PSU, fuse number 9 is marked as 10amp for spare outlets/marker lights. You may try then looking at the fuses on the PSU.

 

[foggydave]

Thank you all for the suggestions. So its search the fuses first then go down the wd40 and check pins on the socket.

 

[foggydave]

Hi Just been up to the van and decided to hook up and check if any power was getting through

The results. One front marker light holder was deformed and melted onto the bulb. Other front marker light showed signs of heating with deformation. The 2 rear side market lights had blown bulbIs.
I dismantled all 4 lights and with the car running the reading was 13.5volts so power is still getting through and whatever blew the bulbs has not damaged the wireing loom.
Question. Would the melted front marker light have caused the other bulbs to heat and blow?
I cannot give a date when the lights stopped working as I only travel in daylight and on hooking up only check the rear light clusters which is my bad but it is what it is.
To check if this bulb blowing was a one off or need further investigation ie I need to tentatively replace the front lights complete and the bulbs in the rear side markers.

The next question is. Where do i get filament bayonet bulbs from? I have seen bayonet led lights. Are these replacements? If so my bulbs are 12v 14w, what is the equivalent led?

 

[otherclive]

Hi Just been up to the van and decided to hook up and check if any power was getting through

The results. One front marker light holder was deformed and melted onto the bulb. Other front marker light showed signs of heating with deformation. The 2 rear side market lights had blown bulbIs.
I dismantled all 4 lights and with the car running the reading was 13.5volts so power is still getting through and whatever blew the bulbs has not damaged the wireing loom.
Question. Would the melted front marker light have caused the other bulbs to heat and blow?
I cannot give a date when the lights stopped working as I only travel in daylight and on hooking up only check the rear light clusters which is my bad but it is what it is.
To check if this bulb blowing was a one off or need further investigation ie I need to tentatively replace the front lights complete and the bulbs in the rear side markers.

The next question is. Where do i get filament bayonet bulbs from? I have seen bayonet led lights. Are these replacements? If so my bulbs are 12v 14w, what is the equivalent led?

Try one if the inline suppliers like auto bulbs direct or go to Halfords.

 

[Jcloughie]

Question. Would the melted front marker light have caused the other bulbs to heat and blow?


The next question is. Where do i get filament bayonet bulbs from? I have seen bayonet led lights. Are these replacements? If so my bulbs are 12v 14w, what is the equivalent led?

1, Each bulb works independently, so no affect on other.

2, Just Google ‘12 volt filament bulb‘ there are masses of them.

The overheating in the past might have been from outside influences. Very odd thing to happen, and even odder that it’s occurred on more than one light. You might want to try led lights for less heat. Only problem might be in sophisticated car cam bus and light failure warnings, but I guess you don’t have one of them or you would have had pre warning.

John

 

[Thingy]

I would seriously consider getting this caravan inspected by a competent engineer.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Over heating n 12V lamp sockets is quite a common feature, and its invariably corrosion on wire and bulb connectors that creates a higher resistance which heats up when when the bulb is turned on.

Its best to actually unplug the connectors (with the power off) one at a time clean the surfaces re plug them to physically to help to remove any corrosion. A light spray of WD40 may well help to keep the corrosion free for longer.

 

[Dustydog]

Also It’s wise after physically cleaning the contacts to spray them liberally with Electrical Contact Spray. This cleans and etches the contacts hopefully ensuring a good connection.

 

[Jcloughie]

Over heating n 12V lamp sockets is quite a common feature,

Never seen that 'common feature' but lots of failure due to corrosion certainly. and this happened to 3 out of 4 of the OP's lights. All without a fuse blowing.

The OP said his bulbs were 14 watt. (Odd size), surely 5 watt is most common for this application. There may lie the problem. see post#9

John

 

[foggydave]

Hi Thingy you may be right on getting an engineer to inspect the system. As I say I am tentatively testing the lights with new bulbs and should they still blow then I will seek expert help.
J cloughie. You may have something there. The simple wiring diagram does state 5w for the bulbs and the rear markers are definitely 14w . I cannot get the front bulbs out of the holders as they are melted in and may be 5w. Couple this with what I have written below may explain what happened

Thought! The n/s and o/s marker lights are on 2 separate systems from the PDU the only common feature is their wattage which is a lot lower than the rear clusters. The last time but one when we went out my Defender broke down and we were recovered by a recovery truck with the Defender on the lorry and the caravan being towed. The recovery truck was lit up like a christmas tree with multiple lights to the front, side and rear. I wonder if his connector was putting out more than 13.5 volts or excess amps.

 

[Hutch]

Thank you all for the suggestions. So its search the fuses first then go down the wd40 and check pins on the socket.

Do not use WD 40, its terrible on contacts, use a contact cleaner.

 

[Dustydog]

Do not use WD 40, its terrible on contacts, use a contact cleaner.

Agree. I only ever use ECC. WD 40 obviously has a time limitation . What does it do to the contacts Hutch?

 

[ProfJohnL]

Do not use WD 40, its terrible on contacts, use a contact cleaner.

I di dnot suggest using WD40 as a contact cleaner - only to provide some additional protection against corrosion, which is precisily what its designed for.

 

[otherclive]

As well as the universally known WD 40 water dispersant/light lubricant/anti corrosion fluid, WD40 make an excellent contact cleaner as well as other specialist fluids such as penetrating oil, silicon spray etc.

The universally derided WD 40 anti moisture/anti corrosion spray was used extensively to keep corrosion at bay on embarked RN aircraft and in particular RAF Harriers embarked on ships as the GR Harrier was made of different alloys compared to the Sea Harrier.

 

[Dustydog]

I thought WD40 was a poor conductor of electricity and could make poor electrical connections?

 

[otherclive]

I thought WD40 was a poor conductor of electricity and could make poor electrical connections?

When sprayed liberally over an aircraft it alters its radar cross section signature markedly. 😂 Not to be welcomed by the pilot.

I have used it as a anti corrosion measure in bulb holders for years without detrimental effect on conductivity. I wouldn’t use it on pcb like my Thetford electrical press pad.

 

[Beachball]

That was the case with me never use a 13 pin socket plug the caravan socket i could not get it to go in but now i found if you line it up and push and turn it to the right the lid holds it in place and the lights work well so far they have

 

[ProfJohnL]

WD 40 (other water displacement sparys are available) is not specified as a contact cleaner, but it does have some properties that might loosen some types of contact contamination.

If the type of contact has no wiping motion WD 40 is not such a good idea but where the contats slide or wipe as they make, WD40 might loosen some detritus allowing the closure of the contatcts to more easily wipe it away.

WD stands for Water Displacement and in that reagard after a push fit like a spade terminal or bulb bayonet has been made, a light spray of WD40 can help to prevent or delay future contamination.

Do not get the spray onto the glass enevlope of a bulb.

 

[Thingy]

As for the common fault, we had a Swift Celebration from new about 8 years ago and they did a recall to change all the tube lights over the lockers as they were overheating. Its was an LED kit replacement and you could either return the van to dealer or they would send the kit out to you.

That was when I found that you cannot trust a caravan wiring circuit.