Hi,

Just joined the forum, looks really good, seen a number of topics that are of interest as my car suffers the same thing, such as the driver door/interior light issue, CD player being damaged by water, funnily enough my rear window washer doesn't work and nor does my CD player. My towbar electric had gone wrong which I fixed last night, bad earth beside the CD player which looked like it had been wet, I bet its the rear washer thats caused this after reading the topic.

Anyway, my question, is it normal that rear numberplate lights are permanently on when the key is in the ignition? Even when the lights are off. Not a big thing, but it annoys me! Its an estate if that make any difference?

Hi, & welcome!

If you're saying that it's just the number plates light on, and no others, then I'd say you have a fault. At the very least I'd expect tail lights as well.

From your comments it does appear that something is amiss with your wiring, but these things aren't always easy to locate. Try the simple things first like earth points & block connectors.

Happy hunting.

sorry to be clear, the tail lights work fine when they are turned on, and are off when they are turned off. What I mean if i'm driving the numberplate lights are always on, regardless of the position of the lights, off/side/main. This doesn't seem right, I'd have thought they would only come on once the side or main was turned on but I wanted to check incase its normal.

What I mean if i'm driving the numberplate lights are always on, regardless of the position of the lights, off/side/main.

This is most definitely not correct. Suggest you check the earth connections in the tailgate, and then look for broken insulation on the wires where they pass from the tailgate back into the car.

With light being lit all the time, the bulbs are getting a good earth connection. I suspect a faulty lighting switch. It supplies the lights through Fuse 4 (5Amp) so try pulling out this fuse to see if the number plate lights go out. If they do, the fault is on the feeder side either with the light switch or at the fuse panel.

If they still stay on then there is another supply from somewhere. Do you have a towbar fitted? A wrong connection in the towbar wiring will do this (particularly if you have 2 sockets and the wiring from the aux supply is wrong).

Hi thanks for the advise I will try pulling the fuse and see what happens. I do have a tow bar and it is the double electrics so you may well be correct that something is not quite right with the wiring.