I had a blown rear side light warning coming on the dashboard, however none of the bulbs have blown.

what I did notice was on the dual filament bulbs, only the brake light part of the bulb is on (not full brightness)

Is this normal?

I do seem to remember in VCDS an option to enable brake lights as side light incase of failure.... or did I dream that!

cheers

Are they in correctly and right ones. I remember getting some superbright ones from halfordsand if you touch brakes a warning came on . I would change each bulb and then test. Is it both sides as well and are they in correctly as some aftermarket ones allows you to put in wrong way as bayonets are not quite right and give half brightness

Remember the bulb arrangements are different between the hatch and estates. IIRC the estate uses single filament bulbs that work at different brightnesses for brake and fog lights. Each cluster has more than one rear light bulb so using the brake light would just cause confusion.

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Yeah it's the same both sides, and only changed 1 bulb from the originals. It's the correct way round, it just seems as though it is in a fail safe using dim brake light filament as opposed to the side light filament.

It's the hatchback too.

It may not be correct . Check the pin position the same as original. As I said some aftermarket ones fit but the bayonet position is not quit right

Did you replace like for like?

 

A common mistake on the Octavia is to replace the factory standard 21W/4W with the much more common 21W/5W.

 

It's only 1W but it's enough to cause issues and trigger the blown bulb warning on some cars.

Sorry for the delay in replying, the bulbs are definitely the 4w ones, and correct base (cap). I'm getting home too late at the moment so I will try further investigation later in the week. Cheees

Eventually got to the bottom of it, the junction block on the back of the light cluster was a poor connection. Just by chance I noticed it as I had already wiggled the junction plug numerous times.

Was this the connector on the back of the bulb holder that you unplug before removing the bulb holder?  

Yes it was

Prompt reply ! Lol