Reverse Lights on

[darrenp]

Hi,
My reverse lights are staying on, regardless of whether I'm in reverse or not. This is even the case when I don't have my lights on. No bulbs were replaced recently, this just started happening. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Darren

 

[jase0851]

do you have vag-com ? i would start there see if there is any fault codes

 

[ScottyP45]

the switch that controls the reversing lights is usually fitted to the gearbox and will likely be the problem, it closes its contacts when reverse is selected and so it must have collapsed and shorted inside to put the lights on constantly. Incidentally reverse lights dont only work when the lights are on, they work all the time on all cars.

Find the switch mounted on the gearbox and unplug it, the lights should go out, showing the switch to be faulty. A replacement cant be expensive, maybe £5 to £15 at a guess, try vagparts.com

 

[howdy quattro]

yeah, scots is right, you sure you haven't jumped into a ford sierra by mistake?!? they were always doin it!! more than likely be the switch at fault mate.

 

[darrenp]

Incidentally reverse lights dont only work when the lights are on, they work all the time on all cars.

Thanks for all that.

I'm aware the reverse lights come on whether the lights are on or not, the reason I mentioned the above is that I once had a B5 and the brake lights were staying on whilst the lights were on - turned out to be a dodgy tail light bulb causing it. So it was just to avoid people telling me to check other bulbs.

But anyway, thanks for the information and I'll try to get to the bottom of it.