A really simple safety tip

[SL4P]

I'm tired of seeing cars with signal bulbs blown, no tail/brake lights - or worse...

A simple trick that any driver can perform almost anywhere ---

When you're pulling into a parking space (front or rear first), up near a wall, window or other barrier, you can see the reflections or light spill - to verify your lights are working.

Check the brighter 'brake' filaments... the flashing turn signal bulbs - even the reversing lights.

No time, no effort, and you, your insurers, and other drivers will be a lot happier when you drop the anchor in front of them!

Cheers - have a safe week!

[c4757p]

Sad that people don't do this. Anyone who's not observant enough to have discovered this on their own should not be on the road...

People have also been amazed at my "brilliant idea" to use my car's reflection in the adjacent car for an accurate indicator of my distance from the back of a parking spot while reversing in.

[Vgkid]

people should know about the turn signal flashing faster, to bad there is no warning for the other lights.  Mom's 08 volvo will tell you about it.

[SeanB]

Every BMW post 1980 has a small box in it that illuminates a lamp in the dashboard warning you of failed lamps. The first version used reed relays with a current coil wound around them ( in the indicators they wound 2 coils for each side on the same reed switch to save on duplicating the circuit). Later versions used a stamped steel resistor and discrete differential amplifiers, the latest versions use a single IC that has everything aside from the current shunts ( a loop of PCB copper in some cases) in it.

Mercedes has had this for about the same length of time, Volvo as well, Saab as well. Pretty much every modern EU made vehicles has bulb failure indication built in to any other than the utter base models now.

The major problem is the drivers do not care. When you see a car that only has the centre LED brake light lit ( and this was a vehicle blazoned with the logo of a Driving School as well, with a learner driver in it) as the 4 bulbs have failed, and only one headlight working on high beam as the rest are blown, you know the driver or owner is either ignorant of basic vehicle maintenance ( supposedly taught in the drivers ed for the driving test), does not care and knows that the chances of the traffic police stopping them as being so low as to be zero.

[gildasd]

Every BMW post 1980 has a small box in it that illuminates a lamp in the dashboard warning you of failed lamps. The first version used reed relays with a current coil wound around them ( in the indicators they wound 2 coils for each side on the same reed switch to save on duplicating the circuit). Later versions used a stamped steel resistor and discrete differential amplifiers, the latest versions use a single IC that has everything aside from the current shunts ( a loop of PCB copper in some cases) in it.

Mercedes has had this for about the same length of time, Volvo as well, Saab as well. Pretty much every modern EU made vehicles has bulb failure indication built in to any other than the utter base models now.

The major problem is the drivers do not care. When you see a car that only has the centre LED brake light lit ( and this was a vehicle blazoned with the logo of a Driving School as well, with a learner driver in it) as the 4 bulbs have failed, and only one headlight working on high beam as the rest are blown, you know the driver or owner is either ignorant of basic vehicle maintenance ( supposedly taught in the drivers ed for the driving test), does not care and knows that the chances of the traffic police stopping them as being so low as to be zero.

Just a silly question, you being in SA, last time I was there, I noticed that all heavy goods vehicles seemed to used the same standardised rear LED lights.
Is that so, or was I simply in a meat eating stupor?

[SeanB]

Just a silly question, you being in SA, last time I was there, I noticed that all heavy goods vehicles seemed to used the same standardised rear LED lights.
Is that so, or was I simply in a meat eating stupor?

No, the rear lights are a mandatory standard on trailers over 1ton GVM, and have a defined diameter  only. There is a series of manufacturers of lights, backing plates and mounting rubber boots for this standard. All are almost interchangeable, but the most common LED versions do tend to be capable of fitting the hole but have a flange and spots for 3 pop rivets to fasten them. Theft of the lights is the reason why, as the LED versions are 40 times the cost  or more than the regular types.

There are a few varieties of the LED style as well, you must have only seen the one style in the harbour, which is the pop in type that is used by Portnet Operations, as it is a low cost lamp that is interchangeable with the regular incandescent lamp unit, fitting the same rubber mounting boot. I know of at least a dozen different styles, ranging from 3 red or yellow leds to ones that combine stop, tail and indicator in a single unit.

Of course on the majority of trailers they often do not work anyway, or have only a single led left lit, the rest are dead or flickering. The smaller transport companies, which are the owners of both the prime mover and the trailers, tend to have working lighting, as they are the ones that pay the fines. If it is a rental trailer then the lights, tyres and such often are in poor condition, along with things like legs, as the driver is not going to get fined for the trailer faults along the road, though if the trailer has new tyres and the prime mover has bald ones they might magically swap during the transport, or the spare tyres might do that.

Friend of mine had 14 flat tyres doing a delivery trip, but he had prepared before, having on the back of the truck both extra spare tyres, the built in crane and a compressor along with a big box of tyre patches and inner tubes, plus a fleet card for the truck stops. Rough road and a full load on the back. On the way he needed fuel, so stopped at the fuel depot only to be told that the bill is still unpaid, so no fuel. Luckily the load was jet fuel, and the load back was empty drums, which still have around 40l of fuel in them to compensate for water ingress. Crane a drum off, use their garden hose as a syphon and fill the drum from all the others, then lift up, drain with the hose till the water is gone and fill the diesel tank. Trucks run well on jet fuel........

[gildasd]

Friend of mine had 14 flat tyres doing a delivery trip, but he had prepared before, having on the back of the truck both extra spare tyres, the built in crane and a compressor along with a big box of tyre patches and inner tubes, plus a fleet card for the truck stops. Rough road and a full load on the back. On the way he needed fuel, so stopped at the fuel depot only to be told that the bill is still unpaid, so no fuel. Luckily the load was jet fuel, and the load back was empty drums, which still have around 40l of fuel in them to compensate for water ingress. Crane a drum off, use their garden hose as a syphon and fill the drum from all the others, then lift up, drain with the hose till the water is gone and fill the diesel tank. Trucks run well on jet fuel........

Hehehe. Good SA style improv.

[SeanB]

We tried with a motorbike and a tankfull of 100/130 variable, and it ran really well, at least till the exhaust melted off at the header after trying to get the bike to full speed on the taxiway. Little 43cc scooter got to over 100kph before the engine seized. On cars it was better, but you did burn exhaust valves badly after a while, seeing as the fuel is going out still busy burning. The MP's ran their pursuit vehicle on it, using old fuel that was expired in storage. I was not going to run my car on fuel with green dye in it, too easy to check, as the standard colour for fuel then was a red or yellow dye.

[BradC]

We tried with a motorbike and a tankfull of 100/130 variable,

Avgas is not remotely like jet fuel. Jet fuel is much closer to Kero and will run a Diesel just fine. Avgas will knock like hell in the same motor.

[Mechanical Menace]

I just wish people would actually use their indicators and not go straight to the fog lights as soon as it hits dusk

[BradC]

I just wish people would actually use their indicators and not go straight to the fog lights as soon as it hits dusk

As an Australian, I must say I *love* the way UK drivers use their indicators (and other motorway etiquette) and I *love* driving there. If you really want to see bad or completely non-existent indicator use and/or lane discipline, pop over to Western Australia. We even make Victorians and NSW look like the worlds best drivers.
The only time I've seen worse behavior was a week in Pakistan, and even they manage to merge without belting into other drivers.

[Mechanical Menace]

As an Australian, I must say I *love* the way UK drivers use their indicators (and other motorway etiquette) and I *love* driving there.

While I'll admit I'm tetchy at the best of times and prone to road rage I doubt that impression was gained from driving around West Yorkshire...

[128er]

Every BMW post 1980 has a small box in it that illuminates a lamp in the dashboard warning you of failed lamps. The first version used reed relays with a current coil wound around them ( in the indicators they wound 2 coils for each side on the same reed switch to save on duplicating the circuit). Later versions used a stamped steel resistor and discrete differential amplifiers, the latest versions use a single IC that has everything aside from the current shunts ( a loop of PCB copper in some cases) in it.

Have to investigate that. I have a 1995 BMW E36 Compact. And never noticed a indicator lamp when a rear or front light failed. Maybe this is a feature for export models?

Here you often see people driving around in twilight or complete darkness, with no lights on at all. I can not understand how they didn't realize that. The only explanation for me is, that they think "Uh, the street lighting is so good, I don't need my lights". But they didn't realize that they can't be seen by other drivers. And that is at least as important as that yourself can something see. It's pointless to rant about  that . . .

Edit:
Ok, found schematics for my BMW. There is a Check Control Module (CCM) for this application. It's monitoring the lights with current shunts. But the shunts and the CCM are some sort of option. My BMW does not have this feature.

[VK5RC]

The 240 series Volvos had the bulb failure sensor (counter wound coils) a real PITA if your bulbs were slightly mismatched as occasionally when you applied the brake the bulb failure light would come on briefly. Also a pain to wire either an eye level brake light or trailer light connection but a good feature none the less.
For world class bad driving come to South Australia, even our Police commissioner has agreed we are the worst.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/police-commissioner-gary-burns-labels-sa-drivers-among-worst-in-the-world/story-fni6uo1m-1227299568069

[BradC]

The 240 series Volvos had the bulb failure sensor (counter wound coils) a real PITA if your bulbs were slightly mismatched as occasionally when you applied the brake the bulb failure light would come on briefly. Also a pain to wire either an eye level brake light or trailer light connection but a good feature none the less.

Volvo made them standard across all models in 1975, but I'm pretty sure they were in the 1 series too. Actually, for any car with those old Hella bulb failure relays tacking on a trailer is a great way to smoke the relay.

I just built a buffer for my 740 to run the trailer without loading the existing bulb failure circuits. The muppet who owned the car before me just tapped off the tail light wiring with those horrible "scotchlok" connectors. No good when you are pulling a caravan with 50W of running/side lights and the bulb failure relay is wound for 10W.

[SeanB]

The 240 series Volvos had the bulb failure sensor (counter wound coils) a real PITA if your bulbs were slightly mismatched as occasionally when you applied the brake the bulb failure light would come on briefly. Also a pain to wire either an eye level brake light or trailer light connection but a good feature none the less.
For world class bad driving come to South Australia, even our Police commissioner has agreed we are the worst.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/police-commissioner-gary-burns-labels-sa-drivers-among-worst-in-the-world/story-fni6uo1m-1227299568069

You are very wrong there, you need to come to South Africa. Highest accident rate in the world, and 200 000 claims per annum from the (broke) Road Accident fund. You can go and buy a drivers licence, get a COR without the vehicle ( one taxi failed at a test centre yet passed at another 1000km away within 1 hour), pay the traffic cops who stop you some money to fix their thirst, and drive a taxi without any sort of test.

[VK5RC]

@SeanB, I think I will have to concede we (Sth Australia) may not be the worst but we are pretty awful, all I can say is take care!!!

@BradC I remember installing a 245 Volvo eye level brake light, it came with a 30 page instruction set, (5 languages mind you), I remember the front page said it would take 90-100mins (bollocks I thought) and I would need a 175cm piece of timber (WTF!!!!!!!)
After about 2hours I had finished the job (don't you hate it when people are right!) and you did need the piece of timber to prop up the boot lid (wagon) to route the wiring through the right hinge which needed to be loosened substantially to get the wiring through!  I took the brake wiring through to the dashboard area and got the brake voltage before the 'relay'. The car's name was Orville, a bloody marvellous car, so much character.

[atferrari]

and even they manage to merge without belting into other drivers.

Had you to live there...or, for the case, here in my city, you soon will be used to prevent unprevented actions. Lack of civility or whatever apart, that is plain "adapting to the environment" or in more basic terms, plain survival. Life works like that.

[Kevman]

Ford seems to like to provide out-light indicators. I remember my uncle's 80s mustang had a little indicator shaped like a car that told you which lights are out.

My '07 Milan will tell you on the dash VFD when lights are out. A few months ago I got in and it said "CHECK LEFT HEADLAMP" and sure enough it was out. I thwacked it like the Fonz and its been fine since.


F series pickups don't seem to have it, though. Spent most of Saturday chasing down the ground for the rear lights on my dad's F-250 (above the spare, of course). In the process we found a big high-current lug that connects the cab fusebox to a cable running to the driver side battery. It had rotted through and snapped off when we touched it, making the whole truck go dead. All the copper on the lug was gone. That was fun to fix.

Counted 65 fuses in the cab fuse panel on the damn thing.