I started on the recent T5 acquisition today with the biggest issue, the rear lights! put the van in reverse the brake lights came on, side lights lit but made the indicators glow at half power, add the hazard lights and the indicators and side flashed alternately like a railway crossing light, OMG.
Started by disconnecting the battery before checking the bulb holders, I found a bit of water corrosion so dremeled the contacts in holders and sanded the bulbs with 1500 grit sand paper, continuity test showed good contacts, removed all the wood panelling in back to see if any wires had screws through them or obvious damage, all good there so followed the rear loom all down left side of roof to the cab where it drops down the door pillar and under rubber flooring, all seemed clean enough, at this point I lifted double passenger seat and found the junction points for front to rear wiring looms, although they are lifted above the floor on the seat bracket it seemed like water and gunk had passed through here at some point.
Although only two of the four junctions go to the rear lights they are all inter related so set about cleaning them all with contact cleaner (isopropanol alcohol) once that had dried and cleaned of the water stains I cleaned the contacts with a fiberglass scratch pencil brush (£3.50 off amazon) and reconnected all the plugs, the red one in pics has a large brown earth wire that supports everything so cleaned that contact in more detail, problems solved, lights doing everything asked of them now but that earth point is a vulnerability so I made a separate earth connection at the back to the body from the earth wire to rear bulb holders as belt and braces, pain in the ass that i had to track all the way through before finding the junctions but hopefully anyone reading this with problem lights can go straight to those connections first
Started by disconnecting the battery before checking the bulb holders, I found a bit of water corrosion so dremeled the contacts in holders and sanded the bulbs with 1500 grit sand paper, continuity test showed good contacts, removed all the wood panelling in back to see if any wires had screws through them or obvious damage, all good there so followed the rear loom all down left side of roof to the cab where it drops down the door pillar and under rubber flooring, all seemed clean enough, at this point I lifted double passenger seat and found the junction points for front to rear wiring looms, although they are lifted above the floor on the seat bracket it seemed like water and gunk had passed through here at some point.
Although only two of the four junctions go to the rear lights they are all inter related so set about cleaning them all with contact cleaner (isopropanol alcohol) once that had dried and cleaned of the water stains I cleaned the contacts with a fiberglass scratch pencil brush (£3.50 off amazon) and reconnected all the plugs, the red one in pics has a large brown earth wire that supports everything so cleaned that contact in more detail, problems solved, lights doing everything asked of them now but that earth point is a vulnerability so I made a separate earth connection at the back to the body from the earth wire to rear bulb holders as belt and braces, pain in the ass that i had to track all the way through before finding the junctions but hopefully anyone reading this with problem lights can go straight to those connections first
