I've got a crack in the passenger side rear light cluster on a 2007 Elegance estate. Looking in the bulb replacement hatch I can see one (easily accessible) bolt holding the unit in but I'm wondering if there are other (more tricky) bolts to access....

Is the unit easy to remove and does anybody know a good source of replacement lenses (there are some on ePray for about thirty quid - not OEM I suspect).

Thanks

Dead easy to remove, if you pull back the carpet in the tailgate you'll see the retaining nuts that hold the cluster in place.

Apart from the likes of ebay you'll have to make a dealer visit. Some ebay ones are OEM though, especially the secondhand ones. if it were me, I would get a used one rather than new, it will be cheaper and not stand out at the back of the car as a new one would.

Genuine OEM passenger side estate here.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-OEM-Skoda-Octavia-Mk2-Estate-Rear-Light-Unit-2004-2009-N-S-PASS-/190611323799?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2c6151fb97#ht_622wt_1219

There are 4 bolts in total. Helps if you remove some of the carpet to get at them. Worth having a magnetic socket as it is very easy to drop the bolts, they are only 10mm from memory. The new light clusters are £45 inc vat from a main dealer. It's a 20 minute (max) job to fit one.

Its dead easy... 15 minutes max.

1) Pull off the carpet / bootliner flaps inside the boot allowing access to the back of the lights.

2) Unplug the large electrical connector and tuck it out of the way.

3) Squeeze the two plastic lugs which releases the bulb holder from the back of the actual cluster.

4) Manipulate the bulb holder towards you away from the cluster, be careful as the bulbs can get caught as they pull out through their access holes.

5) Now the bulb holder is removed your visibility improves! You should then see four silver threaded bolts that secure the cluster to the body of the car, two at the top and two at the bottom. Unscrew the nuts (be careful not to drop them as you thread them off the end of the bolts).

6) The light cluster should then pull away from the car - there is a foam / rubber pad which seals any water / wind ingress. This may casue resistance when trying to remove the cluster but just push/pull a little harder and will come away easily enough.

7) Once it releases don't pull it away from the car too fast. There are two independantly wired 5W bulbs. These just pull out from the cluster but only become visiable once the cluster is released from the car slightly.

The hardest bit of the whole process is getting your spanner over the end of the threaded bolts, if you have small hands you'll have an advantage when it comes to turning them off the last few threads!

Hope this helps!

That's an excellent guide. Thank you.

Thanks for the really useful advice - Mannyo - I've bought that one from the bay, thanks for the heads up. One little job to do over the Christmas break ;-)