Whats wrong with my number plate light?

Hi Folks,

Can't seem to sort this one....

Number plate lamps occasionally fail to illuminate. When I inspect they light up and I have 12v at the wires. I have wiggled the wires to see if there is a dodgy connection, but it seems fine.

Following a lot of 'R' and 'S' reg vehicles I have noticed many have no number plate illumination.

My bulbs are fine and the contacts are clean and spades tight.

Any ideas?? Is it a common problem?? MOT in March, so need to get this small issue resolved.

Thanks

Steve

Had that before, it was the spade connector and surface corrosion on the circuit board itself, where the bulbs twist on.

common fault I believe. I had it with mine, and found it was caused by corrosion where the copper spade that the connector plugs onto is rivetted to the bulb carrier mechanism. To cure it, first I gave it a good old wiggle and cleaned off any corrosion I could see. Then I added a dab of copperslip and wiggled it around again. Then finally I pinched the rivet up tight with a pair of mole grips.

When I say, corrosion, looks just like a darkening of the copper, not the green verdigris you might expect to see.

If it goes again, I'm going to put a tiny pilot hole through the middle of the rivet and then use a tiny nut and bolt to fix it.

Hope this helps, good luck

Thanks Fellas - I'll have a look on the weekend. I was thinking of soldering everything. At a worse case scenario I could undo the excess bulb wire and solder to the board!!

Thanks Again.

Steve