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Megane 3 Plate Lights

8K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  coup 
#1 ·
Heya guys!
Been a bit of a lurker for a while, but this is my first post, asking for advice... my bad :devil:

Anyway.
My Mk3 Megane just had it's first MOT (59 plate). Flew through everything, which was kind of expected to be fair - apart from my left and right number plate lights not working!
To be fair, when I did my 'check-the-lights-the-night-before' test - I completely neglected to check them!

Anyway:
The garage tried changing the bulbs - no joy.
The guys said they either had to 'take out the battery to get to the fuse box' to check to see if it's a fuse issue. However I had to rush to work and took the car with me (I can go back for a free retest in next 10 days).
They checked the glovebox fuses to no joy, and they claimed there was a 'third fuse box' which they didn't know about (?!) and recommended I take it to a Renault dealer under warranty (Warranty runs till next Saturday)
This, coming from my regular MOT garage i've been to a few years - a former Renault official place themselves.

Now I've done a load of trawling online - you'd think this car doesn't even exist! There seems to be hardly any info on the car anyway, especially when it comes to bits like this.

They also said it 'could be a fault in the wiring' too.
Currently booked into Renault Swansea for friday (earliest possible slot, typical).

Just wanted to know if there is a mythical 3rd fuse box for me to check out - or any further infomation would be absolutely amazing. I can only find a fuse schematic for the glovebox fuses and nothing else.
Begrudging going to Renault for them to turn around and say it's probably 'not under warranty' and charge goodness knows much for the privelidge.

Thanks to everyone for your time... I'll go and pop my face into the introduce myself section now too :d

Adam
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Get it in to them now. It is under warranty!
If it was a case of blown bulbs and a fuse gone cos of the bulb going it wouldnt be.
But you changed those so youve covered that.

It may be just the connection has come loose.

Ive seen diagrams(cant link em here cos of copyright), where the wiring comes down to the bulbs.I think it has a mid wire plug connection to the rest of the loom.
Its one of the few wires going down near the rear lower plastic bumper area.
The others being for the rear fogs and parking sensors(if you have those fitted.Those wires follow a different route tho.

Why was I looking at this.2 reasons :
I was thinking of taking off the rear lower part to get it sprayed,I also have 2 little chrome posts with led's in them that I was thinking of using in place of the original lights .
You can access the wiring by reaching up under the bumper and then the upper part by removing the plastic pane on the lower edge of the tailgate frame, but thats renault's job..for another week anyway :)

edit : You can allways ask em over the phone before book in, if you would even need to book it in n tellem the bulb changed/fuse checked bit,is it warranty?. Id be very suprised/disappointed if it wasnt and besides they get paid by renault ifit is a warranty case , so doesnt adversely affect them.

You can see some of the wiring if you pop out the panels for changing the rear light cluster bulbs tho once again that would be just for personal intrest.
They should get something like that done in 15 min.
I havent noticed any 3rd fuse box towards the rear of the car ,like behind the rear seats and there isnt that much wiring to check, it isnt mentioned in the owners manual..
 
#7 ·
:) :d :) ..you a bad man!,no work done on the car recently eh.(Just the 4 guys changin bulbs and messin around with the number plate lights) ;)

.....t.

It may be just the connection has come loose.

Ive seen diagrams(cant link em here cos of copyright), where the wiring comes down ......ntioned in the owners manual..
Damn Im good!:devil:
Grats its all sorted!.
 
#3 ·
Many thanks for your post!

I did nose through the light cluster holes and seen a wire from each side going towards the middle of the bumper.
As i've got no rear parking sensors I assumed they might be towards the lights - however there's one going each side, and they're both quite chunky cables.

I'm kind of assuming that a cable that chunky (seemed about 1cm thick) from each side wouldn't really be needed for such a small bulb.
What's more, the more I'm reading, that if it was a fuse issue, more than just the plate light would go? As in if a fuse had gone, the side lights would have gone etc...

Going by the online handbook (like I said, Renault being useless, they never gave me one...) there is only 2 fuse boxes anyway.
I'm going to go through every single fuse in both boxes this morning and look through it - even though the guy in the garage did already.
However when he was rummaging around, he must have moved another fuse - half of my air conditioning/heating panel light has gone out since they fiddled about. What's more, it seems when they said they 'had to take the battery out' seemed more like a comment about a Mk2 Megane, the engine fuse box is actually very accessible.
Bizarrely (on a quick look) I couldn't actually see the battery :idunno: - yes, I'm really showing my incompetence now.
So yeah. Plan for the morning - I'm going to go buy new bulbs for myself (I only have what the garage told me to say they changed them) and try them, and check all the fuses myself too.
I'm also planning on trying a bit of WD40 on the bulb holders/connectors.
Reason being - I just noticed that one of the plastic casings over the left bulb is actually cracked. Wondering if maybe some water's gotten in and maybe rusted/shorted something out... I'll look into it!

:tumbleweed:
 
#4 ·
Battery is on the rhs of engine compartment ,in a big black box with a cover thats held on by plastic clips.

When you are 100% sure on the fuses(dont like the sound of the ac light going :( ), I wouldnt rush into wd 40 all over(in terms of guarantee).
The cracked left number light should really be coveredby guarantee also unless they make out someone put it back the wrong way :(

The number plate light connector is under the rear plastic moulding that surrounds the hole that the tailgate lock goes into.
From the pic its about 4-5 inches from the lights themselves.
The light units themselves may pop out easily(ive never tried) and then you could pull the connector closer to the holes if you wanna try access from below,but the side clips could be easy to break..
I wouldnt bother personally(cos of guarantee) unless I was sure Id knackered something by my own messing around.. could happen.
Ive already broken one of the plastic retaining lugs for one of the rear bulb access panels cos Ive removed them a few times, with fitting leds etc. I wont be claiming on that.

Gl wi it..oh hey since you have a meg 3 vote on my poll :) in the poll section.
 
#5 ·
By that description the battery is what I thought was the fuse box... Unless it's just a really small battery compared to what I'm used to seeing... I'm such an amateur!

Like I said I'm gonna go take a look in a bit, I'll report back with what I find... if anything.
I doubt I will :rolleyes:
 
#6 ·
Just a quick follow up!

The car went into Renault on Friday - sat and waited.

After a slightly stressful wait (and looking through the window with 3 people standing there scratching their heads at the back of my car), the lady came out and asked me if I'd "had any work done on the car recently?".

To which I replied no.
Apparently the plug had become... unplugged in the bumper!

No idea how the hell this could have happened! But it's now sorted, passed MOT, and we're all good :d

Thanks for all the advice! Much appreciated! :)
 
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