Oddness from 5W/21W twin filament bulbs - any precedent?
I replaced the left brake bulb yesterday since the 21W filament had failed.
On checking operation afterwards I had a left side/brake light doing what it ought to but (new feature) a RIGHT bulb putting out 21W of sidelight (and, possibly, 5W of brake, but that couldn't be seen using my 'reverse close to a Halford's warehouse window and check out function in mirrors technique').
The logical checks (in it bulbs [swop bulbs], is it wiring [err...]) apparently
came up trumps on bulbs ... in that putting the old (malfunctioning!) bulb from the right in the LEFT light cluster, and the new (A OK) bulb in the RIGHT cluster had everything working as it should.
Needless to say this is odd behavior, and I was in the process of swopping them back to check that I wasn't going mad when I dropped one of the offending bulbs down the slot which accommodates the emergency triangle/breakdown set, which did rather stop the fun. (Any suggestions on how to access the space down there welcome)
The bottom line would suggest that nominally identical bulbs are chiral, and sensitive to which side of the car they're on? Nonsense, clearly - has anyone seen this oddness before?
The car sailed through its MOT last month, so clearly not an issue then. Since then I've installed some HIDS (H7 only, low beam) but find it had to believe that could be responsible.
Comments welcome ...
M
I replaced the left brake bulb yesterday since the 21W filament had failed.
On checking operation afterwards I had a left side/brake light doing what it ought to but (new feature) a RIGHT bulb putting out 21W of sidelight (and, possibly, 5W of brake, but that couldn't be seen using my 'reverse close to a Halford's warehouse window and check out function in mirrors technique').
The logical checks (in it bulbs [swop bulbs], is it wiring [err...]) apparently
came up trumps on bulbs ... in that putting the old (malfunctioning!) bulb from the right in the LEFT light cluster, and the new (A OK) bulb in the RIGHT cluster had everything working as it should.
Needless to say this is odd behavior, and I was in the process of swopping them back to check that I wasn't going mad when I dropped one of the offending bulbs down the slot which accommodates the emergency triangle/breakdown set, which did rather stop the fun. (Any suggestions on how to access the space down there welcome)
The bottom line would suggest that nominally identical bulbs are chiral, and sensitive to which side of the car they're on? Nonsense, clearly - has anyone seen this oddness before?
The car sailed through its MOT last month, so clearly not an issue then. Since then I've installed some HIDS (H7 only, low beam) but find it had to believe that could be responsible.
Comments welcome ...
M