Tony Norton
Member
Registered: 5th Nov 07
Location: Bournemouth
User status: Offline
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Hi,
has anyone had this problem?
I have an '04 5 door Corsa Design (no, that's not the problem) which recently failed the MOT because the offside rear light was showing white light to the rear. This was found to have been caused by the heat from the stop & tail light bulb having melted a hole in the red plastic shroud that surrounds it. A replacement unit, only the diffuser - not including the sockets - cost £82 fitted!!!
I have checked, and had checked also by a Vauxhall dealer the nearside one and that is showing signs of melting also.
My contention is that this is a design fault as there is either insufficient clearance between the bulb and the shroud, or the shroud should have been glass, not plastic.
It is most likely to happen, I think, to a car that spends a lot of it's driven life in an urban situation. Particularly if the car has an automatic gearbox as most drivers of an automatic will hold the car stationary, e.g. at traffic lights, with the footbrake, rather than bothering to put the lever into neutral. This results in the 21 watt stop light being on for longer periods than might be the case with a manual box. Mine was a London registered automatic.
The rear light is of the type seen in the picture on this page: -
http://www.networkq.co.uk/nq/cars/usedCars.do
Please contact me if you have had this experience. I am trying to build up a dossier on a fault that Vauxhall claim never to have had any reports of.
Cheers
Tony N
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