Indicators & Side Lights

On most current vehicles the repeater is built into the mirror housing as its own small lamp, so it is replaced without touching the glass or the mirror assembly where the design allows. Check the connector inside the mirror first, since the loom crossing into the door and up into the mirror flexes constantly and fractures inside its insulation. If the supply is present at the lamp and it stays dark, the repeater is the part, and it is listed here by side.

Because the lamp and the detection are separate things. The radar in the rear quarter decides whether a vehicle is alongside, and the warning lamp simply displays that decision, so a dead lamp with a healthy system is possible and so is a healthy lamp with a failed radar. Have the fault read to establish which end has failed. If the system reports no fault and the lamp never lights while the audible warning works, the lamp is the candidate.

Yes, and they are a regulated item rather than trim. A reflector returns light to its source using a moulded corner cube pattern, so it marks the vehicle to another driver even when nothing electrical is working, which is exactly the situation where visibility matters most. A cracked, missing or faded reflector fails inspection in most markets. They are cheap parts, listed here for left and right, and replacing one takes minutes.

Check the supply first, because small lamps sit at the ends of long circuits and are frequently dead for reasons that have nothing to do with the lamp. Corroded connectors, a poor earth and chafed wiring in the areas these lamps occupy account for a large share of failures. Test for voltage at the connector with the circuit commanded on. If the supply is present and the lamp stays dark, order the lamp. If not, follow the wiring.

This is one of the cheaper lighting categories. Reflectors, brackets and position lamps sit at the bottom of the range, mirror indicators are modest, and blind spot warning lamps cost the most here without approaching the price of a main cluster. The live minimum and maximum are shown in the band at the top of this page. Given the prices, replacing a cracked reflector or a tired bracket while access is open is straightforwardly worthwhile.

Most of them, yes, and they are good introductory jobs. Position lamps and reflectors are usually held by clips or a couple of screws behind a bumper cover or a trim panel. Mirror indicators need the mirror glass removed, which is a careful rather than difficult operation. Work warm so the plastic flexes, use trim tools rather than screwdrivers, and order clips with the part since the originals rarely survive.

Because they are pressed steel parts living behind bumper covers and in wheel arch areas where spray, salt and grit collect and stay. Once the coating is breached the corrosion spreads at the fixing points, and a lamp mounted on a distorted bracket sits crooked, catches water and eventually loosens. This category lists the brackets separately for left and right, and adding one to a lamp order costs very little compared with doing the job again.

Yes, in colour, position and in whether side repeaters are required at all, and rear reflector requirements vary similarly. A vehicle built for one market may lack lamps that another requires, or carry them in a different position. This matters most on imported vehicles, where an inspection can pick up a difference that was perfectly legal where the car was built. Match the OE number for your vehicle's market rather than assuming a lamp that fits is acceptable.

Small lamps breathe through tiny vents and a light mist that clears when the lamp warms is usually normal. Standing water means the seal or the housing has failed, and in a small lamp that usually corrodes the contacts within a season. Replace the lamp, fit a new gasket where one is supplied, and check the aperture behind it for a water path, since a lamp sitting in a pocket that fills will do the same again.

Check the number rather than the shape. These parts are handed and frequently differ between trim levels, particularly where a vehicle offers blind spot detection on some versions and not others, and connectors differ with them. A lamp that clips into the same aperture may report differently or lack a function the vehicle expects. Match the OE number and the side, and use the quote form where the reference brings back nothing.

On most current vehicles they are integrated into the headlamp signature rather than fitted as separate units, so they live in the headlamp category and a failure means the headlamp assembly. Where a vehicle uses discrete running lamps or a separate strip, that part appears here or in the headlamp listings depending on how the factory catalogues it. Read the listing description rather than assuming, since the naming varies between vehicles.

Yes. Side repeaters, mirror indicators and blind spot lamps are small parts with a lot of variants, and the ones tied to a single mirror housing or bumper shape are the least likely to carry a figure. Quote the number and say which side. Where the lamp is bonded into a mirror cap rather than clipped into a wing, check what the reference actually covers before ordering, since some are supplied as part of the cap and cannot be separated. A reflector or a mounting bracket damaged in the same knock is worth adding to the request.