Rear light cluster

Author
Discussion

adevxr

Original Poster:

234 posts

154 months

Thursday 18th January 2018
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Hi guys,

Does anyone have a rear passenger side light cluster 57 VXR8 as mine has the fast blink fault and NO MOT tester will pass it as they are saying the laws have changed for them and become much more stringent?

Looking to ideally borrow one to pass the MOT so I have time to permanently fix mine?

Can anyone help out?

Ade

globalfish

394 posts

96 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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Have you tried swapping the LED control modules over? My rear driver side was fast flashing and i swapped the module over & it went to the other side. Have you definitely got LED's not working or faded in your light cluster? I bought another LED module - far cheaper than a light unit. Walkinshaw had them but I believe they are out of stock right now. Check module before you buy a light unit if that's your future intention.
It was the early LED modules that were an issue. Maybe you're still on the original one...
Sorry I'm too far away to offer further assistance.

Bull Fullbright

68 posts

194 months

Saturday 20th January 2018
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I had to change a module to make it pass the mot, it then failed on a faded reflector, it had gone nearly white. I had to buy a new £££££ light fitting after all.

adevxr

Original Poster:

234 posts

154 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
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I have had the module tried at Walkinshaws before and it didnt work so they said it would need a new light - its never been an issue however Im late this year re mot'ing so its colder

Ade

globalfish

394 posts

96 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
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The fast flash thing is odd, most seem to say it happens to them in colder weather but mine happened at anything above 6 degrees C. In Winter, mine was fine.

Z0m81e

249 posts

141 months

Tuesday 23rd January 2018
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If you're feeling keen you can take the light clusters out and replace all the LEDs it fixed it for me and others. The total cost of the LEDs is peanuts compared to the price of a new unit (~£10 if that). There's a write up on the net but basically you just heatgun the back to soften the glue, prise it open and then remove and re-solder all the LEDs. Sometimes you can see there is a bank of LEDs that is duller than the others and you can just replace those, but once you've gone to the faff of opening the thing up you might as well just do them all.

Paul

adevxr

Original Poster:

234 posts

154 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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Just an update - I went over to my friends garage and took the light unit apart (he didnt want to do it incase it got damaged for obvious reasons) was fairly easy to do requiring a bit if patience and gently easing the back off using a heat gun and sharp blade/scraper tool to help separate. The strange bit is the top of the back where it folds up slightly - took a while as I though there may be a catch or clip under there but turns out they just daubed a large amount of sealer there so takes a bit longer to get through.
Once we had the unit open we found 9 'damaged' red LED's (possibly from opening the light unit due to them being on an angle so you really need to pull the unit apart in the direction of the LED lamps to avoid this) and 3 dead orange indicators. We replaced the reds and they all worked, there is a common band that feeds all of the lamps neutrals but the lives are banked in 3's from each resistor, so if an LED is damaged generally 3 will be off. We eventually found the middle of the three orange LED's had a broken 'leg' but couldn't se this straight away - was only the fact that when we pressed down on the top of the LED the 3 oranges came on so we took the middle one out replaced it and it worked. What we didnt realise was that if you leave the indicator flashing while you are making changes it continues to flash fast after you have done so make sure if you are doing this that you cancel and reapply the indicator to check if what you have done has made a difference! smile
We only had standard LED lamps to get it working and I am happy to say it works perfectly now - the high intensity lamps are ordered and hopefully I should have my boy back by next Friday and i cant wait - just hearing him start up after a couple of months was amazing. My friend is a motorsports race team support mechanic and preps a lot of Mazda MX5 and Porsches for cup racing - they also support a Golf Gti racing team and a couple of E36 BMW racing teams. He is also restoring his old Porsche that he has sold to a customer - full strip down restoration.

Ade

mfp4073

1,940 posts

173 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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Thanks for the update, it's good to hear how owners get their cars fixed.

Z0m81e

249 posts

141 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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Glad to hear it worked out. I had a bunch of troubles on and off with mine in the end I replaced all the LEDs and haven't had a problem since. Its definitely the way to go especially when you consider the units are north of £800 to replace.

THUNDER STORM

1,251 posts

168 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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I dont have LEDs for my lights(Monaro VXR), but I am interested to know are the just a standard LED?

Adebyebye

Z0m81e

249 posts

141 months

Sunday 28th January 2018
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Pretty much. I think I looked into this in some depth when I did mine and the LED I used in the end was this one https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/5mm-yellow-led-n76kg the first time I patched up the indicators. I think then the problem recurred and I just replaced all of them and bought from a website that sold cheaper and in greater numbers. The important parts if I remember correctly are that the forward voltage and forward current are correct (plus some sensible brightness and viewing angle).

adevxr

Original Poster:

234 posts

154 months

Wednesday 31st January 2018
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I believe they are a high intensity LED - we tried normal LED's while doing the fix and they were noticeably less bright

Ade

extra330

177 posts

174 months

Thursday 1st February 2018
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I too had this common issue when i purchased mine 6 yrs ago.
Email Picador vauxhall.
they sent me a pair of wiring harnesses to directly plug in which fixed the issue.
There was no charge for them or the postage
AMAZED.
hope this helps someone