Anyone notice the large amount of cars without working brake lights!!
Particularly Citroen,Peugeot,Renault !!!!!
Bit of a prob with French made Brake light switches maybe!!
Anyway, If you drive into the rear of one of these guys,do you have any
comeback when blame is on you for hitting them, I mean surely these people
have NCT on their cars and where are the cops ?
Do they prefer the old handy money from stupid speed traps on straight roads??
You betcha!!Â
12 Comments
Once had a Renault Megane (98 Model). Every 3 months when you touched the brakes and maybe the lights and indicator where on, your rear lights would go haywire. Went to Renault, they said all you can do is replace the whole unit. This is a design fault, the units will keep failing and the replacement units have the same fault, Renault never redesigned them. Handy income for them, new rear clusters every few months, no comeback, it's cough up or have non working brakelights. After a while got fed up, fiddled with it myself and got it going. The contacts corrode, but Renault don't tell you this.
My father had a Renault 18 back in the early 80's. There was a really interesting way the electrical system worked.Without the ignition key, if you turned on the Hazard warning lights, you could then listen to the radio (which would normally need the key turned to accessory). Even better, there was a way to half-switch on the hazard's switch, which would allow you turn on the radio, but without the flashing lights.
I would have thought that it doesn't matter if the brake lights aren't working, you're supposed to keep a safe distance from the car in front.
Good Idea! Get rid of brake lights altogether. People have been striving towards this goal already through the non use of indicators and lights in the dark. Mirrors are next and after that all windows in cars will be blocked.
A new era of motoring will dawn! Safer driving through zero visibility and signaling, we will now all drive with our new found psychic powers, knowing what the other person is going to do by sheer force of mind!
Many people already are striving for this and certainly this will make the roads safer.
No, it will take your brain a split second longer to register if the car in front of you has just stood on his brakes because of a hazard on the road. This will delay your reaction, or even catch some people off guard altogether. With brakelights we have that added safety margin that allows us to react quicker and therefore be safer.
And I hope you've been keeping the proper distance, no one likes a trailer.
If you hit someone from behind you are automatically wrong.No excuses,at all,ever.Should be paying attention.
My dad has a Citroen Berlingo. I was going to drop off my car (Fiesta) into a mechanic for a service one day & my dad was bringing me home so we were both driving into town, me following him. The whole way into town his brake lights never came on once, even when he stopped at a roundabout!! When we got there I told him he must have developed a new way of driving or something!! He was in total shock!! The mechanic spent 20 mins checking out fuses, bulbs etc. and eventually found out that when one of the bulbs was last changed, the wrong sort was put back in (in a Citroen garage I might add!!) and when that bulb blew it affected the whole brake light system!! That van just passed its MOT last week so its perfect since but just goes to show, even a little thing as an incorrect bulb can have a big effect!!
Thanks all for comments,
Was only wondering though if any of you ever heard of someone being even stopped by the cops, let alone being done for not having brake lights !!
I think not!!
Working brakelights give the other guy a split second earlier to react.
You all complain when someone doesn't use their indicators, why should it be OK to have brakelights that don't work?
They give the guy behind crucial time to react, since the human perception of speed is not perfect, and I will take any advantage I can get out there.
Have you ever noticed when you look at a watch with a second hand that doesn't sweep, the hand sometimes seems to have stopped for a little longer than one second?
That is because the brain doesn't always work in real time and pictures that don't change a great deal can remain frozen for a split second.
That's where brakelights come in. The sudden flash of red immediately kicks the brain into gear and you can react a split second earlier.
Sometimes that's all it takes.
That's why the argument of "shoulda paid attention anyway" doesn't wash.
In other countries, if you step on the break for no reason whatsoever in the middle of the road at 100 km/h and cause an accident you are partially responsible. Or if you brake suddenly to avoid hitting a small animal you are also partially responsible, because the people in the car behind you are more important than a cute, little bunnyrabbit.
In Germany, if you're involved in an accident and you have any alcohol in your system (even way below the quite low legal limit) it is automatically your fault. Even if you did nothing wrong.
So there are circumstances where the guy in front bears partial responsibility.
Of course the guy hitting you is still at fault as well. That remains a fact and can't be argued away, if you hit the guy in front, you must have done something wrong.
So, please make sure your lights work, it is a legal requirement and an NCT failure.
And no one wants to be the first guy getting busted by the cops for faulty lights. You never know, they might start taking an interest starting with you.
And, no. I have never heard anyone getting done for having non working anything on the car. I've seen cars with rustholes the size of my head and headlights that had standing water in them with a current and up to date NCT cert.
Tax, Insurance, Grand!
i was once pulled over by the gardi and advised that my rear ligths were not working, it was a shock to me as i had reversed into my garden in the dark the night before and all the lights had been on.
turned out to be a blown fuse!!!
i was greatfull to have avoided a fine and a simple word from the garda was enough.without that word i would not have known my lights were broken as i only check them once a month.
so ask yourself ( honestly ) when was the last time you gave your car a good check over?
I just leave the car in neutral with the handbrake up and stick a phone book on the brake pedal. No need for overpriced gimmicks that way.
A gaurd pulled me over this evening to tell me one of my tail light wasn’t working and said I “might” get a court summons. Which is nerve-rackingly vauge. Where’s my simple warning?