I've got an odd fault with my just purchased Octavia VRS (53 plate)

The offside side lights don't work, I've replace both bulbs and they still don't work, checked both fuses both visually and with DVM and swapped them over, no change. Then I noticed that if I switch on the parking light for the off side they come on.

I then dug out my DVM and had a probe in the fuse box, when the light switch is in the side position I have 12v at both fuses, switching the lights off and using the parking light switch I have 12v at either Fuse 21 or 22.

Now I'm stumped, it appears that the fuses are after the switches as there is no voltage with the lights off so I cannot understand how the side lights are on with the parking light and off when the sides are on.

Is there anything complex in the lighting circuit as I can't figure out why this is happening.

While on the subject does the haynes manual have schematics ?

I've got a 3 month warranty with the car but if it's something daft I'd rather fix it myself, however if it's going to be expensive the dealer can sort it as I'm already miffed with him as the car was sold as 1 owner from new and when the V5 arrived it has had 7. As a pluspoint I also found a forge dump valve hiding under the engine cover....

Sounds like your headlight switch has gone, it gives a feed for each sidelight

7 owners.... and your the 8th for a car which is 9 years old? one might wonder why it had so many owners.....

Haynes manual does have wiring schematics at the back but they're not always right.

Can you not reject the car if it was sold to you as being one owner from new yet there are 7 on the logbook? Did they put it in writing?

If its gone through that many owners and there's evidence of aftermarket stuff on it I wonder if at some stage some monkey has tried to fit an HID kit to it and mucked up the wiring.

Found the fault, took the headlight switch apart and found some burnt contacts, so that sorted the odd fault I suspect that the switch was high resistance so the voltage seen by the DVM was OK but would drop under load.

I've e-mailed the dealer about the car being "not as advertised" and am waiting for a response, if I don't hear anything by Friday I will write an official complaint with evidence and demand to return the car for a full refund. The car is clearly described as one owner from new in their advert. I also have other concerns, either the garage didn't change the oil as they said they have or that there is that much sludge in the motor that the new oil has got contaminated within 300 miles. As the oil is very black and smells of carbon, not new oil as I would expect.

Every time I buy a car for a dealer I have a nightmare

Is this a Skoda main dealer? Shocking!

And yep if they'd put it in writing you're within your rights to reject it under the Sale of Goods act as "not as described" and they should give you your money back. If you're going to do that though I wouldn't start fixing or changing anything on it yourself, and would stop using it if possible.

Nah it's an Indy, got quite a good response from the Sales manager, who has advised that he is investigating the misrepresentation and if there are any defects since collection they will fix them, however for daft stuff I'd rather sort it myself as it's cheaper than a 100 mile round trip.

I think they have been given duff information when they bought it, I should have done a HPI check myself, but as they stated HPI clear I didn't bother.

We will see, don't have the option of not using it, wife (soon to be ex wife) traded in one car and then the head gasket went on the car I was using !

Hpi everything!! Not all indy garages are honest! Dont trust them