indicator problem

[Ray]

slightly off topic as its not so old school ford

mk6 (54 plate) transit, swb box van, has a genuine ford tow bar fitted, drove home all fine and used left hand indicator to pull on the drive, all seemed fine, parked up, locked the van with the remote, this was about 8pm

the rear of the van was seen by the wife and daughter a couple of times during the evening and nothing seemed amiss at 10-15pm when the wife came home after collecting the daughter from work

at around 11-30pm, the wife went out looking for the cat, when she noticed the left hand rear indicator was illuminated, she called me and i couldnt turn it off, engine starts, right hand indicatoor works fine, left hand rear indicator bulb still illuminated, left hand indicator operation is that the 2 front bulbs flash very fast and the rear one stays illuminated

the bulb will not go out, no matter what i do, ive had to remove the bulb for now till i have daylight

anyone had similar issues or have any idea why

[Rally Pack 2000]

I did have this problem in my Mk2 once years back. It was caused by wet carpets from leaky door seals shorting out the loom running underneath.

In your instance though I would focus on the taillight itself and checking if the tabs or contacts on that particular bulb arent earthing to the body directly. It was probably close contact and a bit of moisture in there has made it go.

[Johnny Boy]

Look at the plug to the rear light unit, the earth (black wire ) corrodes, over heats and melts,

look at the plug and the pin on the light unit.

Transits have parking light function if you put the indicator on with the ign off, it may be you did that , and because of a bad earth , its back feeding the indicator bulb.  

[Ray]

Been thru all the above common problems with the earth, plugs etc and nothing wrong, the problem is, it seems to have a constant power source that can’t be extinguished, the bulb is lit with or without ignition, the indicators circuit thinks it has a blown bulb when it isn’t  and the fault developed while parked up and wasn’t raining, the light unit is dry inside 

I’m going to disconnect the tow bar later as being a proper ford one it’s a plug n play electrics which plugs into a light unit, see if that makes any difference 

[Ray]

well ive pinned it down to the tow bar electrics, so disconnected them for now, and will look at that loom another day, as its absolutely hammering it down here