brake light help

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bazzA3

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• Oct 3, 2012

• #1

hey folks. long time lurker on here and learned lots from the site but i'm stuck and hope someone can help me out.
my nearside brake light is out, but indicator, reverse etc are all fine. tried different bulbs with no success. bought a test light, attached the ground cable and touched the wee metal tab the bulb sits on, but nada. tried it on driver side to make sure test light was ok and it lit up, so i'm obviously not getting any power to dodgy one. what do i try next? There's not a seperate fuse for each side is there? car is a 2006 1.9 tdi.
cheers. baz.

 

Dannykn9

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• Oct 3, 2012

• #2

Hi fella, could quite possibly be you have a loose wire going into the connector, have you checked that all wires are intact and have no broken wires.

This is a common problem on sportback models when people do the LED upgrade using adapters, water tends to get into the connectors and the wires corrode.

 

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bazzA3

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• Oct 4, 2012

• #3

cheers for the reply danny. i did take the connector off the bulb carrier (??) and checked it over. all connections are firmly in place and look clean enough, no sign of any corrosion. do the wires just pull out of the connector so i could take a better look? gave them a wee tug but they ddn't budge and i didn't want to force the issue in case i made matters worse!

 

Dannykn9

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• Oct 4, 2012

• #4

It seems then that your connectors are fine. They should stay locked in even with a little tug.
It could be your unit then. Best bet if you can I'd to get it scanned with vcds and see what it brings up.
Where abouts are you mate? I am in North London if that is any help to you, otherwise I am sure there maybe someone local to you.

Also what year is your A3, and is it a three door or sportback?

 

Dannykn9

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• Oct 4, 2012

• #5

Just seen your from Edinburgh. Give username Brodster (Mark) a PM. He is a paying sponsor on here a top bloke. I am sure he'll give you a scan and fix the problem.
I would have tried to sort it out but London is probably a bit too far for a brake light, lol.

Here is his page View Profile: Brodster - Audi-Sport.net

Hope you get it sorted fella.

 

Last edited: Oct 4, 2012

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bazzA3

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• Oct 4, 2012

• #6

Car is a 3 door, 2006. If i pulled the wire from the connector would i be able to test it with the test lamp? If it's getting power that would mean the fault is either the connector or the bulb unit. Trouble is i'm a noob at this and not sure which wire is which!

 

Dannykn9

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• Oct 4, 2012

• #7

The only way to get the wire out, would be to strip the connector which is not the easiest, especially if you are not sure what you are doing.
As said, best bet mate is to contact Brodster and get him to scan the car. He may even have a spare light cluster to check on your car?