Rear lights not working. Bit of a long story here

[deejaykelly]

Ok this might take me a while to explain. Last week I pulled up outside my mates house and went to his door leaving the engine running and the dipped lights on (it was night time). I got back into the car and noticed that the dashboard light wasnt on, this has happened the odd time in the past and a little tap on the side of the dashboard with my fist seemed to do the trick (who says violence doesnt solve anything?). However before I "switched" the dashhboard lights back on my mate who had gone to the back of the car to open the boot shouted "Why havent you got your lights on, it's pitch black out here", this was not what I wanted to hear as my front headlights were on. Bofre getting back out of the car and joining him at the back of the car to see what he meant I tapped teh dashboard to turn the dash light back on otherwise I would probably forget, just after doing this my mate shouted "ah its ok now, they're on". As you can imagine this isnt good as driving with no rear lights in the dark is obviously dangerous. Could this problem be down to some dodgy wiring? Any help would be much appreciated.

[tobz.]

I would suspect you have a dodgy headlight switch. The dash lights going out is nearly always due to the little dimmer wheel at the top of the switch. With lack of use over time the wiper on the variable resistor develops a poor contact with the widing inside and evetually your dash lights will go out. This normally can be rectified by spraying some wd40 into the dimmer section of the switch.
The rear lights could also be attributed to a dodgy headlight switch, mk2 headlight switch failure is quite a common thing apparently. Total failure results in a loss of lights, maybe in your case just the rears. There maybe a whole host of other reasons for your troubles but I would start by replacing the headlight switch.

Tobz