This Bentley Has A Crazy Elusive $5 Light Bulb Problem 

Lightbulb problem? That's an engine-out service.

Having a honest mechanic is priceless

I had a lightbulb warning for my license plate light intermittently going on and off on my old 2013 VW Eos after the dealer replaced the dead bulb. After a few weeks I bought two new bulbs even though both were lit (there were two bulbs for rear license plate on that car) and I found the dealer replaced the bad bulb with a different size bulb then the one that was there! With the matching bulbs installed the warning went away! Wish the VW dealer knew how fix a VW!

I recently went to a Toyota Dealership just for an oil change, and the mechanic came out and told me that I needed a new rack and pinion which would've been almost a $3k job. I left and got an opinion from another dealer an hour away and the mechanic saw that my rack and pinion were perfect and no bushings were damaged. He even showed me, unlike the other mechanic. I ended up just rotating the tires and balancing them with alignment because the other shop screwed the orientation of my tires as well. I ended up with a $360 bill instead of the $3k. I have grown tired of going to different dealers for opinions and everyone has a different opinion.

Always ask yourself first, "What Changed?" New batteries were installed. Is it possible a ground return line was loosened during that process? A loose ground could be the root cause.

I've found over the years that most mechanical devices that are made in the UK need a knowledge close to a PhD in mechanical engineering, while a lot of mechanical things built in the United States have a comic book type of manual that can easy be read. I was in the Canadian military back in the 70s and when we switched from British equipment to American equipment like switching personal weapons from the FNC1 rifle to the C4 version of the M16 rifle, the FNC1 manual was the size of a Sears catalogue, and the M16 manual was a comic book. You have to know where to look and how to read to find what you need.

I repaired electronics for 20+ years and even we had times he had to do the same.

One word…. Integrity. Thanks for the video.

The gauge cluster surround reminds me what was in my sister's old mid-70s Firebird 😅

This owner is awesome, he put a 1980 Pontiac Firebird dashboard into his Bentley - crazy

As i have said before these cars are made only 30 miles away from me. And my friend who works there will tell you, eletrical gremlins are very common. and not easy to find even on brand new samples. At least the Wizzard has the sense to not replace a lot of expensive parts until the fault is permanent. Good luck with finding this fault.

Hey Wizard. VWAG products of this era had tons of issues with factory grounding points not being sufficent enough to provide an effective neutral circuit, then proceeds to backfeed ground through the connector. I bet that connector for the suspect light is burned on the ground pin. Best fix is to add a ground wherever is easily accessible. Had this issue with my 07 audi tail lights. Factory ground was not sufficent had to drill and add one

Too many mechanics treat each hour changed as a way of making money. The Wizard thinks of helping customers as his way of earning a living.

Here we see the Phaeton convertible, ...in its natural habitat...

My wife had an E46 BMW. She kept getting a dashboard warning saying a RR bulb was out. It wasn't. I cleaned all connections, switched bulbs side to side,checked continuity and resistance on both power and ground, even bought a new bulb from the dealer, the problem kept randomly coming back. I finally just ran a jumper wire from the battery direct to the fixture. The problem went away and never came back. The only answer it could be was a factory ground good enough to keep the light on, but intermittently bad enough to trip the sensor. Sensors seem to be TOO sensitive on a lot of German cars

Just finished a two year long debacle with my C5 Corvette's column lock giving the famous 'pull key, wait 10 secs'. $3,000 and a bunch of replaced parts later I finally decided to tear into it myself inspect the circuit myself. I am by no means a mechanic but I was able to find that my BCM had corrosion on the internal circuit board. ~$600 and a 30 minute installation, including someone with a tech II, and it was good as new. I was a victim of the parts cannon :(

My old Jaguar XJS for years it kept telling me a sidelight bulb was out and I knew there was no side light issue. I just put it down to Jaguar electric gremlins and never let it worry me.

"we don't do the parts cannon on Bentleys".... I just imagined an estimate that involves engine replacement to change the light bulb. And when owner raised brows at the bill, tell him, "That's normal. A Bentley thing. Comes with the privilege of owning one"

To me, it sounds like a bad connection somewhere in the CAN bus. Using a scope could uncover a problem. The guy running the South Main Auto youtube channel does a lot of work like this.

For some reason when you were reading the manual about the air bag light I was reminded of the years where GM products had a snowflake with a slash showing the A/C is off instead of a snowflake to indicate its on.

Intermittent problems are the worst. I deal with it daily on industrial machinery. Just break so I can find the problem, or just work. So frustrating. Dead motor, dead servo, dead relay, dead battery, dead solenoid, broken limit switch, bad proximity sensor. Give me those all day long.

9:51 - RTFD...read the fucking directions. Absolutely.

I’m learning so much from you. Just replace the bulb and see what happens. The actual LED diode may fail intermittently regardless of manufacturer or application. Put another working bulb and it may not fail again anymore.

Always great, informative info. By the way, Mrs. Wizard does great videography for you.

Why do people want automatic trunk openers?! Just one more thing to break.

I think someone put in the wrong bulb in. The resistance is different with the bulbs that Bentley uses! Sure it will work just fine but the computer sees the resistance difference and thinks there is a problem and lets you know! So I'd replace the easy turn signal, running lights and such!

At this point these videos are just testament to why you should bring your car to Omega. ❤❤❤

The more complicated electronics gets in modern cars, the harder it is to track down electrical gremlins. My lowly 2018 VW Sportwagen 4Mo developed a strange electrical problem with the auto-off interior lights. They would stay on all the time even with doors closed and key off, also while driving. The dealer did a total parts cannon (under warranty)replacing door micro switches, overhead console switch modules and even the body control module. Finally had to hand off to a visiting VW engineer who finally solved the issue. Something with the CAN bus. They wouldn't explain. Took two months and they had to spring for a rental car.

When Wizard showed these plastic gears I lost all my remaining respect for Bentley.

Wizard, in Vag cars normally that relates to the airbag cable that is under each seat. They get wet/moist, and then become corroded. Remove the batteries, lift both seats, unplug the airbag cables, give the connectors a good clean, and it should go away.

Great video today, thanks for the sound advice.

Check if all bulbs are correct wattage, or even LEDs?

Working on high end cars you should know,my car will say a bulb is out ,yet it works. 2-3 weeks later it's out.As bulbs come to end of life resistance goes up and triggers warning ,and works until it blows

Thanks Wizard!

I admire your work and see you as a role model! Since October last year I am a shop owner as well (in Switzerland) and I always tell my people: you may have a quick win, but being honest you go a lot further! We let the customer know, if a small issue can cost a fortune to solve! We actually advise them, to leave it alone. It’s his call! Cheers and keep up the good work! 👍

It's an Audi A7 with a different body and interior at twice the price. It's all marketing. The Wizard has also mentioned in the past that taking the car apart may make things worse because there is the chance of breaking something or forgetting to fully reconnect something causing a new light to come on. As he said, without more data to go on, it's better to leave it alone.

I'd never own a car where the hubcap initials are up side down when it comes to a stop.

It's just a fancy Volkswagen. Which means all the reliability problems Volkswagen has are multiplied by at least 10.

great video! Good to see honest people still exist!

Loose wire on the bottom of the passenger seat?

The best car repair channel on RU-vid ❤

I’m glad to hear your health is doing well. I can tell you haven’t gone to the Doctor lately. I just want to inform you, the doctor will run up the bill and order all types of tests.

The B in Bentley is for BAMBOOZLED.

About three years ago I installed clear front side marker lights on my '14 Cayman S. I added LED bulbs as well. Last month all of a sudden, I kept getting a side marker bulb out warning. Swapping the bulbs caused both sides to indicate a problem, when the bulbs were operating just fine. One finally burned out, so I replaced them both with new LED's. Still got the bulb warning. I cleaned the plugs with Stabilant 22 to no avail; I reinstalled the original incandescents and put the LED's away, problem solved. Why the car was happy with those LED's for three years and then suddenly got pissed off I have no idea; This is literally the only problem I have had with this car, which has a little over 70K on the odometer. Go figure~ 😡

More shops should be honest like yours!

Love that Bong is the exact same as a 2010 Golf

Why can't every automotive technician be this honest and competent. Wizard, I wish you were geographically close to my location so that I could have you check out things for me.

I have had a bulb issue where theres a bulb out light on but all bulbs are fine, the problem is where the module monitoring the bulbs works on voltage/current flowing through the circuit and if the bulb is old, it will use either more or less volts/amps and this triggers the fault but the circuit is good so the bulb still works. When visually checking the filament you can see its just about hanging on to work and a tap on it would probably break the filament. A new bulb will use the correct resistance to turn off the bulb failure light. The problem on mine was an E46 bmw coupe with the single filament bulb working the tail/stoplight and using different volts or amps to work instead of a twin filament bulb with separate circuits.

If the bulbwarning light comes up on Hoovies Volvo 760, then these are made with a large relay that uses spools that see the balance, left vs right side lights. Having another wattage on one side will illuminate it. Leaving it lit for a long time will burn the relay out and the warning light would stay on for ever. Better change both side bulbs every time one blows, this keeps it in balance.

One of the best things you can do to keep these cars happy is to keep it on a battery tender when you are not driving it. The batteries in these are expensive and they do not like a discharge at all.

I saw the same problem when I worked as a Master tech at Mazda. The Gen 1 Mazda 3 has the exact same fault even when that airbag bulb functions. Turns out that someone put a normal T10 bulb there, where there needs to be a specific T10 with a specified resistance to it. You had to order it from Mazda ($5 or so). Give it a try... Not much to lose.

Just fitted a main battery to a family owned continental on Monday, often the wrong battery type and size is fitted. You need VCDS on laptop or a good ODB reader as often they just put the lights on for fun. We also found a tracker connected in the boot which has now been disconnected.

Newer high energy cars need lithium batteries vs old school lead acid. Lithium LFP(lithium IRON) hold power consistently at higher level, higher ccs, no corrosion or explosive hydrogen gas, last 3-5 times longer, longer warranty, much lighter, charge in minutes vs several hours, hold full power down below 10% of charge(lead acid has trouble charge dropping 70%) no need for trickle charger if storing car over the winter months

Mr Wizard, I really enjoy your channel and how you share your knowledge and experience. I’m not an auto mechanic at your level by any means. I spent many years “flipping” cars in an honest and legal way during the 17 years that my father had a shop. Dad’s shop was never near the level that you operate. In early February of this year I emailed you asking your opinion of Hyundai/ Genesis vehicles. At that time you responded that you had a video coming out about these vehicles and that you don’t recommend them. I follow your channel faithfully and will continue to do so. I’ve yet to see the video your email said was coming out. I personally have had several Hyundai vehicles. I have family members that have had this brand. I have done the maintenance on all but my niece’s newest one. Yes, these are cheap cars. It’s been my experience that they are easily repaired and cheap to maintain.

The first thing i do when a get a new(to me) car is to read the manual from the first to the last page at least a couple of times. It saved my butt al few times.

I got lucky with out local Honda dealer. Several times they've proven honesty. We ran over a dead deer once and it tore some cover thing off on the undercarriage. They did a quote and when we went to get the work done it ended up not needing a $100'ish part and they came out and told us that and the bill was cheaper than we thought. That kind of thing really sticks with you in a positive way. Makes it incredibly difficult thinking about getting a different brand car or from somewhere else. And I've tried independent mechanics. Wasn't impressed. We have mandatory state inspections here and some shops will do what I call the old/used/high mileage car tax where a sub $50 inspection is always $300 a year. Usually for bullshit, a new set of wipers this year, new bulbs every year, some headlamp cleaner because allegedly the lights aren't bright enough, and my personal favorite new brake pads every year even if driven less than 2,000 miles for the year. That's when it hit home time to change shops.

Some black tape over the light fixed can’t see it

Even though a bulb works the electronics might think it's open circuit due to a contact not pressing fully. The bulb test injects a tiny current through the filament and if it's outside a set limit then it's deemed a failure. The bulb might light fine in normal operation. Reseating or light sanding the contacts is usually the solution.

Some BMWs are sensitive to the bulb used. They need a silver tipped bulb not a brass colored bulb tip. The resistance of the metal will give the wrong answer to the car and it assumes the bulb is out when it’s not.

The first thing to do is to look at previous repairs. Bosch went and multiplexed the electrical system. Everything works via feedback. Use a part that feedsback the incorrect frequency and other things will go bad. The German wiring is the biggest issue.

Intermittent problems can be some of the hardest problems to troubleshoot. Since todays's cars have so much electronics, intermittent problems occur more often.

All cannon fire is indirect - the parts cannon is no different. Rarely does it hit the target on multiple volleys. Glad the see the Wizard army experience taught him that life lesson so he can pass it down to his customers. Good job!

At VW I had tons of those passenger air bag codes because people will put their bags of weight on the seat whd it will not be enough for light to turn off so it will tunk there's a fault. We told customers if youre putting weight on seat buckle it up so the sensor bypasses the check of seat weight and just arms the airbag. That's probably what this is

Problem does sound like the micro switch underneath the brake pedal. If one of those 2 switches have a connection over 1/2 an ohm, it will trigger a check lights warning message. As far as the abs light it sounds like an intermittent dry connection on the ignition switch and or the air bag on off switch.

Probably a resistance issue with one of the bulbs.

Thank you for your integrity, how do I find a mechanic that is honest.?

Anyone that owns a Bentley shouldn't have any issue paying $2k in labour to find a problem.

A CHP friend of mine said that when a warning light came on with no fix, they just cover up the light with black electrical tape. Solved.

My Audi a4 airbag light was the connection under the drivers seat replace fixed

You should do a video on reliable and unreliable exotic used cars: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini, Maybach, Ferrari etc

Has a little pine tree. New car smell

You need to check that the bulds are the correct type and correct wattage. The difference in wattage can cause issues.

the design of these continentals is timeless...

Mrs Wizard’s like: “But Wizard, we got boat payments to make! Let’s get that parts cannon loaded!”

spray deoxit on the bulb sockets.

Intermittent electrical issues are always the worst to diagnose.

A lot of foreign cars have to get a new battery coded to the vehicle as well SMH

can you do more videos on normal / regular cars? I would like to see what to buy/ not to buy for Acura, Lexus, and other Japanese cars.

The CW is the type of guy who would never, ever lie to anyone.

As my Mercedes got some age on it, the burned out bulb indicator would come on. When replacing a working bulb, I noticed the inside of the bulb would be coated. The resistence would change making it appear the bulb was burned out.

Also, a lot of replacement LED bulbs will send false “lightbulb out” signals to your cluster. I guess because they don’t draw the same voltage/wattage and the computer thinks it’s burnt out. I’ve replaced bulbs with LED bulbs in my Mercedes and the cluster will still tell me that particular bulb is out when in fact I walk out to look and it’s working.

Did they program the battery to the car? Its oem or aftermarket? What kinda quimestry are it regular or agm? Does bentley require batteries program like audi?

i have touareg that year, they share same parts. i had same thing when i put led light insted original normal light.. after 5 days i replaced with normal and problem solved.

I would not lend my bentley to any friend

Wizard, please open a shop in Palm Springs. Thank you.

Did you do a full code scan (all modules)? It could provide some direction.

take a shot everytime he nods

You have it absolutely right. Do not fix this crap. That is unfixable Lefty

this car is a dream car

Your right, the M.B. dealer replace over 8,000 thousand equipment on my 2015 E250 Diesel, and the car did not start after the repairs, so I sold the POS and got a Toyota, never again buying a German car.

IMHO with those two battery covers off I would have checked the voltage drop on the positive side and the return side. I have seen a lot of electrical problems being fixed by just breaking loose a bolt/nut and tightening it back up.

Hard reset? Worked like a charm on my Buick for those wacky intermittent electrical issues pituitary after a weak battery change out

It did.

I had a similar problem with the ABS light on a Dodge P/U several years ago. Somebody had replaced the original stop light bulb with the wrong bulb. The bulb fit the socket correctly but was the wrong amps.

My 2000 Corolla with 500k miles on it gets me everywhere this piece of shit can, and it has zero issues. Cars are transportation devices, buy a Toyota.

Mrs. Wizard…. You didn’t tell me if there are Cheeto fingers or not on the headliner! Just glossed over it.

The dangerous question with the passenger airbag light is Will the airbag deploy if occupied in a crash? As long as Bentley says it will work, ignore it.

I don't get owners that bring a dirty car to a workshop. If they have to use fender covers to work in the engine bay, that dirt is going to get rubbed into the paint, and some of it inside the cover for the next unsuspecting customer. Maybe time for Wizard to setup a wash bay. At least rinse it off before touching anything.

something similar happened to me, my e300 have shifting issues and the shop told me a I need a new transmission, but it turns out to be a $75 engine sensor.

Lets hope that whoever installed the batteries did a good job of cleaning all contacts, checked the earth contacts !