Light bulb question

nheather

Today I noticed an issue with the front sidelights on my wife’s 12 plate Ford Focus.  Both are operating, one at normal brightness but the other with a dim orange glow.

First thought was that the bulb needs replacing but then wondered whether a traditional incandescent light could fail like that - thought that they either worked or they didn’t.  So wondering what else could be causing it.

Anyone seen similar or have an idea what could be causing it.

It passed it’s MOT a few weeks ago and they were all working as expected then.

Cheers,

Nigel

Aerojon

bad earth connection..

nheather

That’s what I was thinking - high resistance somewhere rather than a bad bulb.

The other bulbs in the cluster are fine though - would they not share a common earth connection.

Cheers,

Nigel

IronGiant

Check the wiring loom, it's likely these days that each bulb has it's own connection,  if you can read this

Aerojon

are they all fine when they are all lit..

RBZ5416

Quite possible there's a bad connection in the bulb. Just swap with the other side.

nheather

No, the dipped and main beam are fine.  One of the sidelights is fine, the other just glows a dim orange whether the lights are switched to side, dipped or main.

Looks easy enough to pull the whole assembly.  Side lights are £3.50 a pair so will have a look tomorrow - for £3.50 I’ll try putting in a new one rather than swapping right and left over - not worth disturbing the good cluster unnecessarily.

Cheers,

Nigel

Aerojon

I that case earths are 1st port of call,they would be mine..

IronGiant

Tee hee, I think Nigel might have put a moderator on ignore

Check out the inside of the sidelight socket, perhaps that is corroded?

nheather

The light enclosure has a single plug connecting it to the car with a common earth.  So if it is an earth problem it is how the side lamp socket is connecting to the common earth of the assembly.

So hoping it is some dirt/corrosion on the bulb or socket itself that I can access and clean up.

Cheers,

Nigel