Bulb Warning System?

[Mark1]

Hi all,

How can I find out if my Puma is fitted with a Bulb Warning System?

The reason being that I have just bought some Xenon lights - Reverse - and they are not coming on when I install them. Although my new Xenon brake lights work fine and shine very bright. Also I tested a new indicator light and this is not illuminating at all.

Thanks in advance

Mark.

 

[martinthrapston]

puma doesnt have a bulb warning system for when a bulb fails

 

[Mark1]

Thanks Martin.

But could there be a reason why my new indicator and reverse lights are not working?

Cheers,

Mark.

 

[martinthrapston]

did they work with original bulbs in?if so could be faulty bulbs you got

 

[spike.]

I presume the lights worked ok with the old bulbs?

If the new bulbs are polarity important, then the puma has the reverse & indicator wired in reverse, hence why LEDS dont work without modification.

Have you tested the bulbs on a direct 12v supply?

 

[martinthrapston]

also as spike said

 

[DradusContact]

Could also be a fuse/relay.

 

[YOG]

If the new bulbs are polarity important, then the puma has the reverse & indicator wired in reverse, hence why LEDS don't work without modification.

I think it's as you say.

Colin (BOK), did his in 2008:
Polarity of the rear indicator wiring was reverse to how the bulbs were made, but the fronts were OK.
It appeared to be the same with the reversing light connection as they originally failed to work.
He swapped the polarity of the rear indicator wiring (and the reversing lights, I believe) with bullet connectors (makes it easy to change back to standard bulbs) and the LEDs worked.

He also fitted a 30W LED flasher unit which worked but no longer made a clicking sound. BOK suspected that with higher wattage LEDs the sound would return, but I don't know the outcome of this.

As with mine, when BOK fitted LED stop/tail bulbs they worked straight away, without having to reverse the polarity.

BOK said that with the indicator and reversing light LED bulbs, you cannot change the actual polarity of the bulb by removing and putting it back the other way so the solution is to reverse the polarity of the wiring.

 

[Mark1]

I presume the lights worked ok with the old bulbs?

If the new bulbs are polarity important, then the puma has the reverse & indicator wired in reverse, hence why LEDS dont work without modification.

Have you tested the bulbs on a direct 12v supply?

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies.

Yes the old bulbs worked fine. The stop/tail worked fine straight away, no problems, although for some reason they don't look as bright even though they were described as 'ultra bright'. I think this maybe because the small LED's have got to shine through the casing. Anyway they still look OK. Before this I had a halfords QR Brake Light in, and even in the day time, this illuminated the whole light casing, but the LED's I then bought only slightly illuminated it.

Regarding the reverse and indicators, still can't get them to work when changing the bulb the other way around. But as you say it may be due to the wiring - This is something that I really don't want to be doing! So on that note, I will keep the existing bulbs.

Also yesterday night when I was driving back from my girlfriends, I noticed when I was reversing to park that the standard reverse light was extremely bright anyway!

Now my next question is, will the standard reverse light bulb work in the indicator socket? I noticed when I put the LED one in, and switched on the indicator, that even though it did not illuminate, the actual indicator on the dash was going very very quickly, far faster than normal!

Cheers

Mark.