Dim rear light help?

[jak kez 187]

My girlfriends Mom’s car (2013 mk2 TT) has been having a problem recently where the passengers rear tail light is a lot dimmer than the drivers side as shown in the following picture.

We initially thought it was the bulbs that needed changing so did so, but after starting the car the whole light would no longer work at all. We removed the lights again and noticed that the connectors looked to be burnt out.

Does anyone have any advice on what we will need to buy to get it sorted again? Preferably without costing a fortune which it will be if we take it to the dealership. I assume a new rear light cluster may need purchasing but unsure what to do with the connector that is attached to the car.

 

[AndyB-S3]

Hi,

Have you fixed the problem?

My 2014 has the same but it is driver side. I took the light out, cleaned the connectors and closed the metal clips back together on the cable connector and plugged them back in and works fine. Not sure how long this will last though as it is as burnt as yours is.

I am assuming a new unit and connector block is the only way to go?

Cheers

 

[jak kez 187]

Hi,

Have you fixed the problem?

My 2014 has the same but it is driver side. I took the light out, cleaned the connectors and closed the metal clips back together on the cable connector and plugged them back in and works fine. Not sure how long this will last though as it is as burnt as yours is.

I am assuming a new unit and connector block is the only way to go?

Cheers

Unfortunately it did need a whole new unit and connector. I think in the end it was round the £200 mark from an independent Audi specialist.

Seems to be a really common problem on this generation of TT’s (only found out afterwards that they’d already had the drivers side replaced for the same problem under Audi warranty within the first year of purchase).

Did find this YouTube video though which shows a little hack on how to prevent it happening again which may be worth considering.

 

[Parkp831]

I had the same issue on my 2014 TT and dimmer tail light was on the passenger side (right). I saw one of the pins on both connectors was burnt. Therefore I cleaned them using lighter fluid and also put some electrical tape around the loose pin to make sure it gets a good contact. Now I have my both tail lights bright again.