Car third brake light

How to detect sidelights faults

Components diagnostics should be started from visual inspection. During inspection make sure the sidelights didn't get cracked and there are no damages on them, resulting from mechanical impact. After that you should exclude burning-out of LEDs or bulbs. Often, the sidelights function improperly because the battery is significantly or completely discharged. The electric circuit should be checked if the construction of the part is intact and defects named above were not detected during inspection. In some cases, defects may be caused by open or short circuit in the car electrical system. The control lamp will help to diagnose it. For more detailed inspection use the tester.

The following signs may indicate that the sidelights require diagnostics:

• the lamps flicker
• the lights got dim
• the indicator of the sidelights malfunction sensor went on
• the sidelights do not respond to switching on

Causes of sidelights malfunctions

The most common causes of premature lifetime ending of lamps are poor quality of the bulbs or LEDs, poor contact between the bulb and its holder, incorrect polarity, overloads in the electric circuit, short circuit, or mechanical damage to the bulbs/LEDs.

Repair of the sidelights

Often after installation of LEDs instead of halogen lamps, the car owners see the illuminating indicator that signals about sidelights malfunction. It can be caused by the fact that a bulb and a LED have different wattage. You can solve this problem without help of experts. For this, you should install resistors before the LED; they will decrease and limit the voltage. Pay your attention to the fact that LEDs do not suit all cars, and thus sometimes it is better to use halogen lamps.

Replacement of the sidelights

It takes 10 minutes on the average to replace the component. For that follow these steps:

• turn off ignition and the headlights (it is not necessary to disconnect the terminal from the accumulator battery);
• unscrew the headlight unit nut;
• pull the hook of the headlight lock and disconnect the headlight;
• take out the headlight;
• unscrew the screws and take the cover off;
• turn and pull out the sidelight holder, take it out from the structure;
• install the serviceable component.