When driving behind my girlfriend Caroline the other day I noticed one of her brake lights was out. So went allong to Halfrauds on Friday to get a replacement.
Checked the book, found the right number and then found the bulb and it looked a bit different. Asked at the service desk if they could double check for me. Again told it would work fine and the difference was just that it was a different brand
Fitted, it all worked fine in the driveway test so off she went
Met up with her again today and while following her home from work noticed that her brake lights were stuck on.... all 3 of them!
After a very dodgy 15 mile trip home in the pitch black with the brake lights jammed on all the time I take the car to bits to see if there's a short. Couldn't find anything. Fuses all ok so abandoned for the night as it was peeing it down
Then it hit me, brake lights worked fine as light as the side lights were off. The side lights were coming on when she braked with the lights off. Even the dash lights were coming on!
Took the car apart again at 6am today trying to find out what the hell was going on.
You know what the problem was? The Fiesta uses a dual filament bulb for both the side lights and brake lights. Halfrauds had sold me a single! So the thing was shorting out both circuits
After a very heated argument with the Hamilton manager this morning I managed to get a replacement set... but the bloke for fitting it was off! I couldn't let her drive around all day with the lights jammed on so I picked up a torques head driver off the shelf and went and did it myself in the carpark... again in the rain
I'm not a happy bunny at all
