OT Brake Lights

I check my brake lights using the wing mirrors when I park up in the dark or by ckecking my CCTV when I park up at home

How do you signal someone to tell them they only have one brake light?

Adam

No idea. Where I work, though, we have local newsgroups which many people read, and warnings like "A 123 BCD, your nearside brake light is dead" come up reasonably often.

Pete

Sure they Weren't all motorbikes?

mark

Or that you don't have only one eye?

Followed a car with *no* brake lights last week. Bizarrely, I recognised it as being local to me and later in the day saw it parked in the street. Left a postit note on the drivers window.

Unlikely to get pulled for trivial stuff these days, so probably not. Seems to me that the local plod are only interested in blocking up main roads while towing away uninsured cars.

The trafffic cops have turned into slaves of flawed databases.

Oh well.

Al.

Ages ago I thought of setting up a domain, something like vehiclereg.org.uk, where you could join and get emails sent to snipped-for-privacy@vehiclereg.org.uk. Unfortunately I couldn't see how to make it free of spam, safe, something people would want to join and able produce a reasonable return for me.

But the idea of such a domain is still appealing for precisely that sort of information. At that time it seemed like I was forever following vehicles with one or two very flat tyres.

I was behind one last year that did not have any brake lights, except the hi level one. Does no one chech their lights these days.

Dave

cos the potholes always appear neqr the verges, where freezing water collects.

one car pulled up with TWO smashed nearside wheels. Didnt check the bulbs...

Bent the wheels straight with a sledge, but the tyres had gone.

Nope.

Which begs the question why would a Lancer Boss Fork Lift Truck (vehicle registration A 123 BCD) have brake lights fitted and why is it driving on the road?

I have aften thought that there should be a recognised signal for this, but what could it possible be, without confusing other drivers or starting a road-rage incident ?

Especially given most cars have a bulb failure warning system. But what warns of that bulb failing? ;-)

Because they are legal to drive on the road and may need to use the road to get between company sites and/or photo shoots?

And how about a way of telling some obliviot that his hazard lights are on whilst driving?

In my case I drove home one night and I know that my brake lights were working, as my wife was following in her car and anyway I can actually see the glow on the gates when I stop after reversing in. The next day on my way home from work, I stopped at traffic lights and the guy behind got out and told me that my lights weren't working - all three of them. I assumed that it was the switch, drove the short distance home carefully, but when I investigated, all three bulbs had blown! I can only assume that there was some sort of voltage spike - that car was always prone to bulbs blowing.

I've never understood why it wasn't made mandatory for the brake lights to have bulb failure warning fitted, as they're the most difficult to check on your own.

SteveW

None of my cars have had a bulb failure warning system. Newest is only 04 reg.

Like all the other dash bulbs it wouldn't come on during the POST.

Given that IME no private motorist knows the signal for "your indicators are on in error", I wouldn't worry about brake lights.

There's a signal for this, used by lorry drivers (*), but IME no private motorist knows what it means.

(* Open and close the fingers in a sort of snapping motion.)

Indeed, that's what my 1990 Carlton did, had separate warning bulbs for brake light failure / headlight bulbs / washer fluid level / brake pads worn etc. etc. Lit up like a christmas tree when starting the car. More recent Omegas / Vectra / Zafira display 'brakelight fail' or similar on the dash display until the first time the brake pedal is depressed after startup, as a sort of POST fail safe.