Rear lights

Q

I’m hoping you can help with an intermittent issue I’m getting with my 2007 Octavia VRS. The warning light for the lights (bulb failure) is coming on. When it happen, the two 5W bulbs in the nearside rear light cluster go out. However, putting one of the working bulbs from the offside cluster in, does not light up the bulb. This suggests to me that it must be a problem with the wiring loom, but I was wondering if you might have any other thoughts?

The problem is very intermittent. It’s now been a few weeks since it last occurred, but when it does, it will stay for a few days before disappearing again. I haven’t managed to see any pattern as to when it does and doesn’t happen, but it seems to be 30-60 seconds after turning on the lights.

The last time the warning light stayed on until I had to use full headlights, rather than just side-lamps; when I did that, the warning did not come on and has not come on since.

Craig Mcwiggan

A

Being an intermittent problem, you may have a high resistance in either the bulb or the connection to the lamp. I would renew the two bulbs that are affected to eliminate the possibility of faulty bulbs. I'd also undo the connection to the lamp units and use an electrical cleaning spray such as this http://bit.ly/cmvfccs before reconnecting.

One observation that I would make is that if you swap the bulbs while the lights are on, they will not illuminate until the lights and ignition are turned off and on again. This is due to the Canbus system used.