2 or 4?

ive noticed this previously but being passed by 3 166's last night has prompted me to actually ask the question.

how many rear lights do you have on your 166?

i have four, but 2 of the 166's that passed me last night only had 2, now is this down to year, model, blown bulbs or pre or post face lift?

i would discount the facelift option as ive seen pre facelift with only 2 before, last night was too dark to tell whether they were f/l.

also id discount blown bulbs, that would be one hell of a coincidence, everyone has the same 2 blown bulbs that they cant be bothered to replace??????

so that leaves year and model?

mine is a 2000W 3l sportronic lusso with 4 lights

4 lights on our previous three 166's

4 lights on both I have owned - 2003 reg (2001 build) 3.0 Super and my current 2004 reg FL Ti

4 on mine - had a fail on a previous MOT sheet for one of the 4 being out....

4 on mine

4 but went through a period of only having 3 recently due to a bad earth

Philip

this prompts for a funny story, I had never noticed it before, but I reversed into a wheelie bin (on my front lawn mud and automatic don't mix very well) and cracked my driverside rear light, but only the one in the boot...ebay produced me (from Ned) a replacement, put it in.

a few weeks later I notice that I have 3 lights lit at the back, so i investigate the one I didn't replace to see a ncie black bulb - replaced and now have 4! (reason I checked was because i was wondering if it was a different year thing.)

even stranger when i press the "check" button the "light out" woudl stay on for a bit longer than the rest but then go off...aftsr replacing the bulb it now goes off....weird!

was this becasue it wasn't a "main" light? or is that the normal way of warning?

that's the normal warning....stays on for about 30seconds and then goes out.

Originally Posted by niallmoran

that's the normal warning....stays on for about 30seconds and then goes out.

Disagree slightly as NOTHING IS NORMAL on a 166.
On Pomeo I tried evrything when changing oil to get the oil level warning to work.Nil Nothing Zilch...wouldn't work.Now for some reason every time I check light it stays on and the oil level is fine.

Pomeo's check lights work all the time even when driving...Laceys check lights only work with engine off.

Re Lacey The bulb failure light intermittently displays warning longer than the other bulbs and then works fine .No sure but may be linked to cable feed to boot lid.

Jabber Is it both inners that were out.Coz if so I reckon boot cable feed.

At Pomeo's MOT time I used to play Knock Knock...It wouldn't work and a wee chap on the cluster was enought to illuminate bulb...Sadly didn't work this year and replaced the bulb.Costlt too . At 20p it broke my heart. Esp after replacing the wee front halogen sidelight bulb which some philistine had forced a normal bulb in AAARGH...I got a bank loan for that as they were £6 each..Got a spare just in case.

Pomeo

Originally Posted by niallmoran

that's the normal warning....stays on for about 30seconds and then goes out.

ahh cool...gotto to play hunt the bulb out again now as it does it again

I had 2 but then had 4 as I opened and shut the boot!
As no boot light as well ended up replacing the wiring between the bootlid and the back parcel shelf.
Took and hour to do in situ with 20 soldered connections - 10 each end.
No need to remove the boot wiring or the rear parcel shelf.
I will give more details if anyone is interested.

Please give more details as my boot light and rear fog lights don't work
Definetly the wiring, cause the bulbs and fuses are OK.
Is it a hard job to do the repairs...?
Some pictures would be great!

4 on mine and last night was the first time I noticed I had 4

hmmmm for some reason i hadnt thought it could be the electrics to the bootlid, its a weak point, does anyone else have to move the cable out of the way everytime they shut the boot. where it comes in on the left of the boot and loops before going into the boot it gets trapped when i shut the boot, to the point where for the first 96k of its life the owner obviously just shut the boot and trapped the cable, if you look closely the boot doesnt sit quite right ive tried tying it back but its just easier to move the cable as you shut the boot.

if it is the electrics to the bootlid then judging by how many 166's ive seen with the 2 inner lights out its quite a common fault.

To replace the wires in the rubber tube between the boot and the body below the rear window.
The job is quite straightforward as long as you can solder OK and are not colour-blind because you will need to be able to identify the colours correctly at both ends when you replace the wires in between.

You will need a soldering iron, solder, thin rubber or plastic sleeving to cover the soldered joints, side cutters, wire strippers, light coloured insulation tape to write on and suitable auto wire which has to be at least as thick as the thickest wire in the loom being replaced.

1) If you have the radio codes etc disconnect the battery earth in the boot.
2) Carefully pull back the rubber at the boot end and body end.
3) The thicker orange of the two is the thickest cable being replaced. Use whatever colour you have.
4) Gently pull the rubber back at the boot end so that you have at least 2" of wires showing and cut all cables (10) at 45 degrees - not straight across - you will need to stagger the soldered joints.
5) You can now remove rubber tube and see how damaged your cables are. Most of mine just fell to bits.
6) Cut again just below the window where the wires enter the car again at 45 degrees leaving at least 2" as you need something to solder to.
7) Cut the first of your new cables, I made mine 2" longer than the total length of rubber it was going into. About 10" in my case.
8) Starting at the boot end, strip back the first existing cable about 3/8", twist and tin and push on about 1" of tube insulation.
9) Strip, tin and solder new wire to existing and pull back insulation to cover the soldered joint you have just made.
10) Repeat for all 10 wires.
11) Stick a small piece of insulation tape at each of the loose ends where they are to join onto the cables below the back window.
12) Identify the colour at the boot end of each wire and write it on the insulation tape at the other end. As long as you understand it that is the important thing because you will have to be able to match to the colours of the cables coming out below the window. I used "SO" for small orange and "LO" for large orange etc.
13) Now the hardest bit. Tape over all the joins and covering insulation sleeves at the boot end. Mine ended up being about 1/2" thick.
14) Tape the other end of your cables because now you have to thread the new cables thorough the rubber tube ready to solder at the window end. I used a thick wire through first and used that to pull the new bunch through. Voila!
15) Because you wrote on each wire what colour was what you can now one by one cut, tin and solder below the window carefully identifying and matching each cable colour as you go. Don't worry if the cables are a bit long as there is plenty of room below the rear parcel shelf to accommodate any excess.
15) Tape up the insulated soldered connections at the window end.
16) Attach the grommit an each end of the rubber tube back in its original position at the boot and below the window.
17) Check boot opening and closing so that nothing is trapped.
18) Connect battery and test.
A tedious job but not too difficult and just the cost of a few electrical bits,time and the odd burn of course!
Hope this makes some sort of sense next time I will take pictures!