Rear Light Brightness / Calais Trip
Rear Light Brightness / Calais Trip
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whd

Original Poster:

49 posts

243 months

Saturday 6th January 2007
quotequote all
Having been on a little jolly with an Elise owning friend recently to Northern France, we left early in the morning in the dark and (obviously) had our lights on.
The roads were very wet, loads of spray etc - anyhow, my pal behind me told me later that the rear lights are VERY difficult to see, and when the brakelights come on - they come on at the brightness of what it shoud be normally.... Make sense? So I just wondered, having never driven behind a chim before, whether this is is how it is...or have I got some weird problem....fuzzy lenses etc

Incidentally, the car REALLY turns heads in France!
Worth noting that the roads (on a diversion) from the port of Calais to the town centre have some SERIOUSLY deep puddles/potholes! Going out, the Elise hit the beginning of a ramp to a raised road, so beware!

It was a good trip out to Calais - anyone interested in doing this in the future, getting a few Chims together for a booze cruise? Hotel accomm for 1 night worked out at £20 and the crossing was £39 return......

spend

12,581 posts

281 months

Saturday 6th January 2007
quotequote all
I guess common faults may be ground/earth and if light cover has water/condensation.

Dave

hut49

3,544 posts

292 months

Saturday 6th January 2007
quotequote all
whd said:
Worth noting that the roads (on a diversion) from the port of Calais to the town centre have some SERIOUSLY deep puddles/potholes! Going out, the Elise hit the beginning of a ramp to a raised road, so beware!



Plus ca change! Some years ago I and a friend went off to tour Europe in a ...wait for it...Triumph Herald Vitesse...we got the Dover Calais ferry and half a mile into France at 5.30am while negotiating a detour we discovered that, fully loaded (but not in the optional extras sense), the car's clearance was pretty minimal to non existent. Crossing one of those ramps there was a bang from underneath and the exhaust developed a rather appealing rortiness. Anyway, as the resident mechanic, and without the benefit of ramps/axle stands and not wanting to work under a car on a dodgy scissor jack, I drove the two near-side wheels up onto the curb and wriggled underneath in the nitch of the gutter with a cut up Coke can and a couple of big jubilee clips to affect repairs.

All was going well until the local residents up the hill started to rise and shine. Apparently one of their daily chores was to wash down their tiled doorways and pavements with the slops from last night's washing up (and god knows what else!). Before long I felt a creeping tide running down my back that quickly turned into a river! Nevertheless we got the job done and headed off to the south of France to dry out!