Rear lights fail - shared fuse plus lucky escape

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Fri May 30, 2014 8:41 pm

Had some electrical work done by local auto electricians yesterday. Later in the evening in the dark the dashboard lights failed. Headlights still ok so I assumed this was because they'd created a loose connection in the dash light so continued my journey. Ten minutes later the dreaded flashing lights behind me. Pulled over for no rear lights.

Learned a few important things:

1.The same fuse works the rear lights and the dash lights. Makes sense really and if I had half a brain I'd have assumed this and realised the rear lights weren't working.
2. Always good to be otherwise driving safely if the cops happen to see something wrong with your car.
3. A bit of humility goes a long way.
4. Don't trust dealer to sell you the right spare fuse kit - check them yourself.
5. Apparently the rear reflectors almost look like the rear lights are on.

If I'd had the right fuse with me and solved the fault on the spot they'd have let me off entirely. They saw me try to fit the wrong type of fuse and only gave me a defect notice and for only the lights. No fine. No points. No examination of the rest of the car. They even let me drive home as long as I rode the brakes from time to time if there was traffic behind me.

6. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and would have steered me, if I'd been less stressed, to swap a less important fuse into the rear light holder. :roll:

7. Perhaps while the coppers were being so lenient, and since, unlike me, they're under no stress when booking a motorist, one of them could have suggested 6?

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Sat May 31, 2014 12:51 pm

Its good to see that the Police do take notice of defects on lighting. There are so many vehicles with defects on lighting who never get pulled over. How often do we see vehicles with less than 3 stop lights- and all of them are supposed to work. But we do often rely on others to tell us a light is defective.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Sat May 31, 2014 1:01 pm

I make a point of letting other driver's know if their brake lights are out (I only bother if it's both of them)
Unfortunately most of the time the response is "who cares"

Sounds like the police were good about it, no fine, but still a notice to get it fixed.

I wonder how long before there's a heap of responses from people saying how the police are arseholes etc?

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Sat May 31, 2014 4:52 pm

Brake lights were ok. Police were ok.

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Sat May 31, 2014 5:51 pm

Mr Morlock wrote:Its good to see that the Police do take notice of defects on lighting. There are so many vehicles with defects on lighting who never get pulled over. How often do we see vehicles with less than 3 stop lights- and all of them are supposed to work. But we do often rely on others to tell us a light is defective.

The Police are there to p.o.l.i.c.e. the laws.
There are X number of "vehicles with defects on lighting " on the road, a Y number of Police, who are generally trying to catch big ticket issues. To expect Y to have a significant impact on X is pure folly.
Morlock, the onus is on the driver of the private vehicle to ensue that it is in a fit state to be used on public carriageways.
It's not hard to reverse up to a wall, window, garage door, etc and quickly check the operation of tail, stop, reverse, and turn signal globes/bulbs/lights/lamps, all while seated in the derivers seat.
That is how we used to do it in the old days.
Dave learned an important lesson, that mazda tail light fuse is integrated with the dash light fuse. I think you may find that this is the case with a number of vehicles.
And thanks to Dave for sharing his story :BROADY:

ps. Morlock. Unsure where you believe this to be the truth?? I see this all the time.

Mr Morlock wrote:How often do we see vehicles with less than 3 stop lights- and all of them are supposed to work.

All my motorbikes have only one "stop light" and my Hilux has 2. They are all vehicles..........
Unfounded generalisations are the domain of the ignorant. :mrgreen:

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Sat May 31, 2014 7:04 pm

On an NB the engine compartment fuse block has a fuse affecting tail lights , indicator lights, instruments and auto aerial. From the fuse panel in the car fuse 12 affects tail lights and front parkers and fuse 14 controls instrument cluster.Its suggests to me that the blown fuse was engine compartment. The owners manual does not mention a separate fuse for stop light. The tail light bulb is a 21/5W which does stop light and tail lights. If there is no power to the tail light I cannot quite grasp how the rear combo brake lights work?

ffg- perhaps your vehicles are old. Virtually all modern cars i.e. built in the last 20-30 years have 3 brake lights so a generalisation is that most cars have 3 brake lights- accurate I would think.

I think we all expect the Police to enforce the regs relating to car lighting as well as other features that make a car unroadworthy. Laws don't really mean much if they are not enforced and the Police are probably the only ones able to pull a car over to alert a driver.

Vat · Postby **Vat** » Sat May 31, 2014 7:37 pm

ADR for compulsory high mount stop lights for passenger cars was introduced in 1988 for the '89 model year.

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Sat May 31, 2014 7:54 pm

Might be in danger here of interrupting my own post with some facts, but here I go:

The main aim of my post was to let people know if their dash lights go out they have no tail lights and should take the action below.

It was a 15 amp blue fuse in the cabin to the right and below the steering wheel. It is labelled "TAIL". It only affected the dash and tail lights, not the indicators and not the headlights (I wouldn't drive without either of the latter - or without brake lights, which were also working). The fuses in the engine bay may well also affect dash and tail lights and maybe brake lights but none of them were blown.

Now I've looked at the fusebox in detail I know I could have, for instance, removed the very next 15 amp fuse, which is for front fogs (F.FOG), since I don't have front fogs any more, and plugged it into the TAIL slot and not even been defected.

I have no complaint with the cops. They were doing their job.

Mind you, no doubt all MX5ers and other road users would be pleased to see the cops pull over more cars with defective front lights whose drivers decide the solution is to put on the single remaining onto main beam or to use foglights to add to a single working headlight when its not foggy.

It is very difficult to see the labels in the in-car fuse box. I eventually worked them out by taking a phone camera pic with flash. If you want to know where your fuses are in advance of having a similar event happen to you, I recommend you do the same when you can do it without being stressed by a cop breathing down your neck and the thought that he might start checking the rest of your car.

By the way, isn't there a fine line between being an agent provocateur and being foolish?

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Sat May 31, 2014 9:12 pm

Vat wrote:ADR for compulsory high mount stop lights for passenger cars was introduced in 1988 for the '89 model year.

Spot on! None of the vehicles I mentioned fit within that criteria.

morlock wrote:How often do we see vehicles with less than 3 stop lights- and all of them are supposed to work.

My point was that vehicles is a large umbrella term and morlock has the shot gun approach of the ignorant with his wide-spread generalisations.
It could very well be that many of these 'vehicles' he sees aren't required to have them.
I do like how he back pedalled furiously and started using cars, instead of vehicles..... :mrgreen:

morlock wrote:ffg- perhaps your vehicles are old. Virtually all modern cars i.e. built in the last 20-30 years have 3 brake lights so a generalisation is that most cars have 3 brake lights- accurate I would think.

indeed

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Sat May 31, 2014 9:24 pm

Keep my thread. See if I care!

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 12:00 pm

FFG does not seem to accept that the majority of cars or PMVs if one likes have 3 brake ights and you don't prove this as inaccurate by exceptions. It strikes me that if it were regulated by ADR from 1989 thats it probably right. And if there are 3 lights then they are all supposed to work.

The comments dave mentioned are at odds with the owners manual for NBP2- the dash lights are controlled in the cabin by fuse 14 - fuse 12 is for tail lights. i.e. they are not the same at least according to the manual. I would suggest to anyone that the glove box has an owners manual in it for reference. Diffferent models may not the same.

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 1:54 pm

*sigh*

I've missed you morlock!
You are like the cantankerous, pedantic, pipe smoking grandpa/uncle/elderly figure that sits in the far corner of the room at family get togethers.
:mrgreen:

cmon, give ffg a hug cos I'm as pedantic as you :beer:

ps. a motorcycle is classed as a motor vehicle, or PMV's, if one likes (not that anyone uses that acronym in Vic, except you).

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au wrote:Standard Motor Vehicles
Self propelled cars, 4WD's, vans, trucks, motorcycles, prime movers & buses used on public roads.

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 3:28 pm

PMV is still used by the Commonwealth Govt and the auto industry and had been around for a very long time. Amongst others add HCV LCV PU/CC and the very commonly know SUV. A motorcycle is not regarded as a PMV. PMV is broken down into categories to make sense of what is being sold. The MX5 is defined as a PMV "sports" -coupe or convertible 3 to 12 cylinders.