Lighting PCB -Urgent!!!!

kelbal

Hi Guys,
Have come across a problem with the lighting on my MH - we're heading away 1 week from now so need to resolve it asap. Its the outside light unit on the left side of the bumper for night/brake lights and indicating. Was noticing the fast ticking when indicating and just thought the bulb was gone. On further examination there's all sorts of weird stuff going on - night light & indicator on half power, all blinking. Traced the cables back to a plastic box on the underside of the MH about a foot or so from the back. There's an equivalent one on the other side for the right set of lights. This box was sealed with bitumen so had to cut it away to gain access. When I did, I noticed a circuit board with various connections plugged into it. It was noticeably wet in a couple of spots and the back of the circuit board is quite corroded, so this seems to be the issue. See attached pics

Hopefully its just a case of replacing this and sealing it all back up well. The problem is - how do I get my hands on one of these by next wednesday/thursday? Is it a normal part I'd get in a motor factors, or is it a motorhome specific part? Aidan_M_M, is it something you'd have in stock?
thanks

The messy way to temporarily fixing it is to wire your lights from the opposite side across the back of the camper. You'll have to take the indicator from the front though.

Diageio_Man

another way is to solder the cabel's directly to the pcb board's connecting points and enclose in a coffin box(sealed plastic unit).

or bypass it...just tail straight into the bulb holder on crimp connections butted to the stripped PCB wiring. I imagine wires will do just as good a job as that PCB was doing.

..or try cleaning the PCB with a non abrasive and sweat the old solder, if it's corroded away maybe you can try to adding a little more here and there.

Things on at half power could be a high resistance short, possibly from the wet. Wouldn't worry about it unless it's still happening after you dry out the connections.

kelbal

thanks lads, have wiped away alot of the corrosion between contact points and will let it fully dry out in the sun today - will let you know later

Aidan_M_M

That's a common thing on done of the Euramobils and Frankias etc. there aren't any components on the PCB such as diodes or resistors, so you can do away with it altogether in favour of a simpler set of crimp or screw connectors. And seal it better then!

If you are finding some of the lines are completely corroded and not taking solder you can always jump across with a small cable link to good solder.
I wouldn't bother with the PCB at all; less trouble without it.

kelbal

Hi guys, yeah suspected the PCB wasn't doing much alright other than joining wires in a fancy way. Luckily I was able to hold it up to the sun and follow the copper tracks on it, so I knew which wires were connected. Then I just snipped off the connector blocks from the MH wiring, and did alot of joining with mini electrical connectors. All working fine now, phew!
Thanks guys for giving me the reassurance to go ahead with this, much appreciated.