Bulb out alarm with LED light

[Ben]

Flat battery on the car this morning. Had do jump start it from the polo.

We followed martins advice and bridged the contacts of the led bulb unit as if the resistor was another bulb. would it also work if we put the resistor in line. i.e current in to resistor - current out the resistor - current in to bulb unit - current out bulb unit??

At this stage we don't know if the resistor was the cause of the flat battery but as i need the car for work tomorrow, i have disconnected the resistor for now. Before we fitted the resistor we had no issues.

During the fitting we did many tests, this involved having the head lights on and ignition on and starting the care several times. Could it be possible we inadvertantly flattened the battery during our testing? it got me home 400yds and to the chippy 2 miles that same night flat (7v) this morning.

The other thought is... i could of left something turned on without noticing.

[martin1810]

Presumably your lights are not on when the car is parked. If the lights are not on, the resistor is not connected to any power so can't draw any.

[phil miller]

Ben it could very well be the resitor, what you could do is have an omhs meter and check the drain with it connected and then without, lets put it this way if its fine tomorrow then you know it was the resitor at fault, how much space in behind the number plate lamp do you have? not ideal but if you had enough space you could place a bulb inline so its still lighting 2 bulbs so the bulb out wont come on, just a thought

[Ben]

Lots of space as its all within the tailgate. Two things I have to bear in mind, heat build up and dispersal and not having any vibrations when things are mounted. Another problem to overcome was the lack of available wiring but this was overcome with some careful soldering of some extension wires to the terminals of the camera. With these wires we can bridge anything but inline looks doubtful.

I agree Martin. I can only presume that I knackered the battery doing tests or I left something on.

[Ben]

since i jumped the car last weekend i've not had the resistor connected just incase as i didn't want a flat battery at 5 am before work.

I will reconnect the resistor before i come home from work tomorrow and use the car as normal over the weekend.

[Ben]

All reassembled and working perfectly.