c5 x7 2009 rear light, plug burning out??

[citroenc5mad]

Hi all I have a Citroen c5 x7 2009 rear light problem. I noticed the other day that the indicator was going really quick like the bulb was blown, and a check and that's not flashing so took the cluster off checked the bulb and the bulb is fine, but changed anyways. Plugged back in and working, so put it back and reconnected checked again and not working.
Done same procedure as above, this time the new bulb didn't work, connected it to the other side plug, and all was working.
Checked the wire on the other side and the first green/yellow wire is starting to brown like its burning, checked the plug and its slightly melted.

Popped into Citroen and got a price off £52 for a plug wiring kit, however the parts guys couldn't tell me if it was a pair or just one, so I wondered if anyone else has had this on there car.

Regards Dan

[citronut]

i have not had any experience of the c5 x7,

but what usually causes this is a bad connection, most modern car connecters are not up to the job these days, the jaws a very flimsy/soft,

the likes of the BXused to suffer from bad earthing to the rear lamp units, this was caused by to much current trying to go through the flimsy connecters, so the jaws over heat and spread, this then makes the connection break down,

the other failure point id the likes of the heater fan plug connecters which do the same but as there is a higher current being drawn through these it melts the connecters,

you might find a long term fix would be as we did on my friends 307 heater blower when the plug connecter melted the second time,
we cut the plug off soldered short lengths of wire to each pin on the blower unit, then coupled these to the main loom with heavy duty connecters,

hasn't gone again

[Xantippa]

I had similar problem on left side. The grounding pin of the connector had melted, and rearlights started to act strangely. I fixed it by adding second grounding cable straight from the backlight (soldered it in) to the grounding screw near the rear light (obviously meant for tow bar electrics). Works very well now and costed nothing. I don't understand why the grounding pin on the connector is the smallest one, eventhough it carries highest currents of them all.

[citronut]

I don't understand why the grounding pin on the connector is the smallest one, eventhough it carries highest currents of them all.

everything these days is made to a price/manufacturer cost cutting

[Xantippa]

But wouldn't it be cheaper to put there several small pins for lights and one big pin for grounding??

[citronut]

But wouldn't it be cheaper to put there several small pins for lights and one big pin for grounding??

i dont think its just the size here that counts but the cheep and nasty/flimsy metal/material they are made from

[Hell Razor5543]

Part of the problem is that, when people produce the wiring diagrams with the relevant loads, they do not show the full potential load on the ground rail. As the ground rail is sometimes shown as having 0V on it, people who should know better think that means there is no load on it. What would be a smart thing to do is to show the full amperage possible on said ground rail (so, if there were 3 devices using the ground rail, and each device pulled 3 amps, the ground rail would show something like 0V, 9A).

[citroenc5mad]

I had similar problem on left side. The grounding pin of the connector had melted, and rearlights started to act strangely. I fixed it by adding second grounding cable straight from the backlight (soldered it in) to the grounding screw near the rear light (obviously meant for tow bar electrics). Works very well now and costed nothing. I don't understand why the grounding pin on the connector is the smallest one, eventhough it carries highest currents of them all.

Could you please add a picture so I can see how you have done this as I'm thinking off atemoting this at the weekend if the weather is good.

And cheers everyone for your input guys.

Regards Dan

[Xantippa]

No I didn´t take any pictures, sorry.

But if you take the rear light out, it´s pretty obvious how to do it. Just look for the grounding part in the rear light itself, and solder a cable to it. Then find that grounding screw near the rear light and connect the other end of that new grounding cable to it, it´s pretty obvious too - if it´s the left side. I don´t know if there´s a grounding post on the right side, then you´ll have to make one on your own (drill a hole, take a bit of paint out and screw cable to it).

[Richard_C]

I had exactly the same problem with the C3 - the grounding pin in the connector is the same size as all the others so when you have rear lights, indicator, rear fogs all on at once it won't cope and you get intermittent bulb failure warnings because they are not drawing the current that the monitors think they should. I used the same fix, a wire screwed or soldered, don't remember which, to the light fitting and the other end fixed to a handy point on the inner wing. 3 years ago, no problem since. The only thing I would add to Xantippas's post is make the wire good and long so you can pull the light fitting out for bulb changes without having to disconnect it.

[Stickyfinger]

Well well well.....good job Citroen.

For giving us another reason not to sit a traffic lights with your FOG lamps on and foot on the brake at night !.....no sympathy

[vborovic]

@ sticky - I do exactly that, and all the wires are still in place ... ...

[Xantippa]

With automatic transmission it´s pretty much impossible to sit in traffic lights without brake lights.

Maybe it would be a good idea to use led-bulbs, they consume less amps, and therefore connections wouldn´t heat that much?

Richard_C, I naturally put a long wire on mine so that changing bulbs is still easy. Just didn´t remember to tell that.

[Stickyfinger]

err handbrake on........ lever slipped one notch to N ... ?? HOW is that "next to impossable" ? you don't even need to dip a clutch

[Stickyfinger]

@ sticky - I do exactly that, and all the wires are still in place ... ...

And with your Christmas Tree bulbs as well ?, will I get a Tan ?