Signal to driver his/her back lights not working

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gebbel

Registered User
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Driving on the motorway at night recently, I have come across a few motorists with one back light not working. Assuming they don't know about it, I have tried to let them know. Once I have overtaken them and hit the hazard lights but I think they thought I was thanking them for something! Another time when I passed another vehicle, I turned on and off the rear fog lights a couple of times, then indicated on the side of the missing light. Is there a night-time signal (safe of course) that could alert a motorist to this?
 
Best done when you have a passenger.
Pull up alongside
Get your passenger to frantically point to the back of their car, lots of hand gestures. etc
Person will stop on the hard shoulder, or next safest spot
Then (so long as they have a passenger too) can test their lights and find the problem
 
Conshine said:
...
Person will stop on the hard shoulder, or next safest spot
Then (so long as they have a passenger too) can test their lights and find the problem
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I didn't think the original post could have been surpassed for dangerous behaviour while driving, but that "bates Bannagher". Someone behind a vehicle with defective lights on a motorway at night. I shudder to think of the possible consequences.
 
There's no way to highlight this that most motorists would understand I think.
 
A tail light bulb out wouldn't bother me that much, it's no brake lights at all that boils my blood! I was behind an old horse truck a while back and nearly rear ended him outside Gort, so reported it to the Garda traffic number 1890 205 805 (I think) got a call back 2 days later to say they had a chat with the driver and all fixed!
 
Is there a known signal to tell a driver, that they have left their rear fog lights on , most annoying and dangerous ?
 
Ethan 1 said:
Is there a known signal to tell a driver, that they have left their rear fog lights on , most annoying and dangerous ?
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Yes, put your foot on your brake-pedal and allow the "offender" to pull away from you. It should only bother tail-gaters.

Now as for the idiots who drive around with their front fog-lights on permanently, my personal belief is that they should be consigned to the colonies, somewhere like Rockall.
 
I think it is dangerous to try and indicate any fault to another driver. It can cause the driver to become agitated and lose concentration. When someone makes signals to me i am afraid that a wheel might be coming off or some other crazy thing. best advice is that drivers should check lights etc every now and then
 

I agree.

Except in the case of emergenicies, if you feel any fault with any car on the road may adversely affect you and/or your driving safety - just keep well away from them.

The onus is on drivers to check their own cars for faults/lights etc - if they don't, it's their funeral - perhaps literally.
 
I suppose if it really bothers you that much you could always laminate various A4 sheets of paper with notes on them to show to drivers as you pass them what the problem is !!

Or you could get one of these



but then again, what would that say about you.....

J
 
Caveat said:
Except in the case of emergenicies, if you feel any fault with any car on the road may adversely affect you and/or your driving safety - just keep well away from them.
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In my book, an unlit car on a motorway is an emergency.

Caveat said:
The onus is on drivers to check their own cars for faults/lights etc - if they don't, it's their funeral - perhaps literally.
Click to expand...

What would bother me more is that it probably would be someone else's funeral...
 

I seem to recall the Top Gear boys putting one of these to good use...
 
This is a decent question and one that caused me some concern a couple of years ago.

I was doing a long drive across the country on lesser traversed N routes and at about 5.45pm on a dark winter's evening, at petrol station in Portumna (a long way from home), I realised on seeing the back of my car that I had no tail lights - both bulbs had failed at the same time.

My fog light was also not working, so it was completely unsafe to drive in the dark. Fortunately, there was a motor factors open still and I bought new bulbs in the nick of time before it closed so could continue.

I still don't know for how long I had been without any lights to the rear of the car - why can't there be a warning light on the dash that tells you a bulb has failed?

Having also travelled recently in France with my car, I now carry a full set of replacement bulbs and its no trouble to pull in a replace a blown one... if you know its blown.
 
Paulone said:
... - why can't there be a warning light on the dash that tells you a bulb has failed?...
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VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Saab, Opel, Fiat, Renault, Mercedes, in fact any main-stream manufacturer has this facility on their more recent cars. Some show a light on the dash meaning "a bulb has failed", some will even tell you which bulb(s).

Do you drive a 1970's Lada by any chance?
 
In general, do Jap cars have this function mathepac?

Aside from Lexus maybe and some of the higher spec Honda and Mazda I don't think they do usually.
 
A lot of jap cars(imports in particular) have 4 bulbs lighting in the taillight clusters(2 on each side) reducing the chances of a backlight being completely out.
 
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