Light fault

George Hogg

George Hogg

A2OC Donor
This shows up when I brake, accompanied by a loud warning, although not every time. I thought it was brake bulb out but both sides are working and the high level. Nothing was changed recently (for the last year).
Nothing showing up on a VCDS lite scan….
Any thoughts?

George
 

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It's a bulb failure warning, so wouldn't come up on a scan.
Dipped or rear lights, according to the owners manual.
Stop light failure is similar, but the bulb symbol is within a brake drum outline.
Mac.
 
Thank you, I’ll have a look later as it’s very bright at the mo. I was thrown off as it only seems to come up when I brake.
 
I'd had light bulbs going out here and there, but I'd never seen any symbol showing up on the dash.
Is it specific for some models/year or it'd be on all A2s?
 
Could be corrosion in the rear light housing, car confused on voltages when brakes come on? I've seen a lot of the metal tracks in the rear light housing on old cars cause strange issues. My sons clio flashes all the dash lights when indicating due to earth on the housing? Worth cheap fix inspection...
 
I have this issue as well. Usually, I just get one warning - and the warning symbol goes away instantly. When I had it before with an actual failed bulb, it would stay on and actually beep every time I stepped on the brake pedal...
 
George Hogg said:
This shows up when I brake, accompanied by a loud warning, although not every time. I thought it was brake bulb out but both sides are working and the high level. Nothing was changed recently (for the last year).
Nothing showing up on a VCDS lite scan….
Any thoughts?

George
Click to expand...
Check the soldered section on the base cap for wear on the area that makes contact with the holder.
 
Hmm, all of the lights are working normally. But the warning comes up when you press the brake.
So I took the bulbs out and inspected them, nothing unusual at all. Popped them back in and so far the fault light hasn’t come up…….
I don’t pretend to understand that.
None of the bulbs or clusters have been touched in over a year before the fault light showed.
????? Lol
 
George Hogg said:
Hmm, all of the lights are working normally. But the warning comes up when you press the brake.
So I took the bulbs out and inspected them, nothing unusual at all. Popped them back in and so far the fault light hasn’t come up…….
I don’t pretend to understand that.
None of the bulbs or clusters have been touched in over a year before the fault light showed.
????? Lol
Click to expand...
The contact of each bulb to the common earth via the outer shell is reliant on metal to metal, where the car side of that contact is likely to oxidise over time, and as @kp 115 says, same goes for the soldered end contact. So, it's quite likely that taking the bulb our then in again, will break the oxidation. This is likely to be a temporary fix. Remove all bulbs from the rear cluster, lightly clean the inside of each holder with fine, (wet and), dry paper to remove oxide layer. Look very carefully at the solder contact on each bulb, as being soft it is worn away over time due to vibration.
I had a similar problem on the TT, and most of the bulbs were original. I bought a couple of packs of genuine Osram replacements, and changed them all. Not much money, and once every fifteen years!
Mac.
 
I had a strange one where if you pressed the brake pedal with door open you got the buzzer as if you had left lights on and opened door so the lights left on warning. Checking bulbs their was a brake light out but the bulb must have been causing a short somewhere. Fit two new bulbs and test
 
The strange thing is that everything was working fine, all nice and bright. I take the point about corrosion but there was nothing visible on close inspection. Usually it’s visible. I’m not saying it wasn’t corrosion but none seen.
Thanks everyone!
 
George Hogg said:
The strange thing is that everything was working fine, all nice and bright. I take the point about corrosion but there was nothing visible on close inspection. Usually it’s visible. I’m not saying it wasn’t corrosion but none seen.
Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Perhaps it happened in a parallel universe.
Mac
 
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