Hi guys,

Haven´t been on the site for a while, but have run into a problem today.

The 3rd brakelight on my Combi has stopped working - no life at all.

Have searched around without really finding anything, so i guess this isn´t a common thing?

I haven´t been doing anything to the car recently, so its not something i have done.

I have a "So wirds gemacht" book in German, but it doesn´t say much about how the thing is wired.

Any help on where to start is greatly appreciated.

It´s cold, rainy and windy here at the moment, so don´t want to spend more time than necessary looking for the problem.

Thanks in advance

Edited 25 December, 201213 yr by pagh

On a Fabia it's Fuse F2 - 10Amp.

DB.

F2 runs all 3 brakelights, so thats not the fault.

But thanks for the suggestion. :-)

Leds need replacing? They have a longer life span, but still go. Or could be the wiring connected to the unit.

Have you checked the current across the connector of the light itself?

No, i have only checked the fuse.

It was dark when i noticed, so i´m going to have look at it tomorrow.

It had it´s danish version of the UK MOT 1½ month ago, so its quite a new problem.

But how is it wired, and where are the connections? I know at the 3rd light itself, but where is it connected to the other brakelights?

I have a towbar connected as well.

Seems odd the LED´s should go at the same time - i hadn´t noticed any failing.

So i think it has to be the connection somewhere.

Will have a closer look tomorrow.

Turned out to be the connection at the 3rd brakelight.

The plug had come a little undone.

Easy fix, but had to remove a lot of plastic panels to get there.

BTW: all the LED`s are still working.

Glad you go it sorted! I hate removing all the panels off the boot - I can never get them back on right afterwards!

Turned out to be the connection at the 3rd brakelight.

The plug had come a little undone.

Had that happen twice in the last 3 years on our Fabia 1.2 HTP hatch.

Ha, you Fabia people are lucky! VW had a "brilliant" (not) idea when they designed the 9N Polo and the third brake light gets fitted in from the outside of the rear hatch. This light is made up as follows:- it has a red lens cover which has a foam sealing gasket to seal this part to the outside of the rear hatch, then the main assembly is clipped on to the red lens, it is this main assembly that gets bolted on to the inside of the rear hatch. Now that seems okay when the car is new, but after about 8 years, and just a few days before MOT time, this light failed on my wife's Polo - when I removed the third light assembly, I discovered that due to the bad design, water had been getting in and over a long period had rusted completely through one of the steel pins in the connector. So, as I failed completely to rescue the "car side" connector, I had to buy a two pin plug and socket, wire one side to the car's wiring harness and wire the other side to convenient points on the new light's bus bars. VAG using open cell foam gasket material AND inappropriate design concepts - this happens time and time again!