morning, got told my reverse light wasnt working last night so checked it this morning and found the lights been letting in water and that the reverse light bulb holder has rusted and the bulb is black, so take it its blown. so first thing ill seal the lights with silicon but now im going to have to try and get the old bulb out and clean the holder and check it still has power, dont suppose anyone's got a reverse light bulb holder spare incase i need to cut it out and swap it? (left side for a classic)

 

First off, the water is probably coming in over the top of the light unit and trickling down over the connectors...it's a common fault on classics.

Second, DO NOT attempt to seal ANYTHING on your car with silicone. It's the wrong stuff in every way. The worst thing about it is that once it sets, you'll not remove whatever it's sticking, ever again. Bad news if it HAS to come out...think broken light unit? Tiger-Seal/Sikaflex aren't much better for this job

The correct stuff to use is this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_tr...cat=0&_from=R4, or similar. It's a totally non-setting mastic which does allow stuff to be removed or repositioned when/if necessary.

If I were you,. I'd have the offending light unit out, clean off as much of the old sealant as possible, look for cracks, splits, dints that might be tiny holes etc etc and fill all with smears of Carafax. Then, after thoroughly cleaning the lighting contacts with emery cloth of wet-and-dry, fitting a new bulb and checking it works, re-seat the light unit on a decent 15mm bed of Carafax.

HTH

 

i checked the bulb holder and its a no go the bulb is stuck and rusted solid so needs to be cut out and swapped for another holder, the lights are sti lights so not replacing them theyll be fine just sealed along the top where the slight gap is that the water must of got in. just need the holder now...

 

Just don't use silicone...... plus you can't seal from the INSIDE, it just doesn't work. You have to seal from the outside, or UNDER the part where the light fits, so that water trying to get in pushes the sealant further INTO the joint. Sealing from inside allows the water coming in to push the sealant OUT of the joint, so the water gets under it....

For a bulb-holder, ask at a few scrappers or look in the for sale section on here.

 

ive just run a bit across the top of the black part of the light unit where the slight gap was the water should just run over it as its where the run off water is channelled from the boot and ive contacted a few breaking on ebay but not had a reply because its sunday and no-one can be arsed so ill have to wait just want to get it sorted asap 2 minute job once ive got the holder and bulb.

 

The exact same thing happened to me on my wagon. Lucky for me i had spare bulb holders but i did get a few people offer full looms over on subaru swap shp on facebook for a fiver posted. Hope that helps. I was also thinking of siliconing the gap at the top of the light unit as my boot always fills with water as well as the light lol

 

At your peril.