Does anyone else get this ?  My Superb a couple of times a week tells me that a bulb has failed but every time I look they are all working perfectly.    I am guessing it might be a badly seated bulb somewhere or a minor bulb that I have not considered?  Does anyone know which bulbs are linked to the sensor ?

Edited 22 September, 201510 yr by Pesmog

A common complaint on the MkII Superb...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/170749-bulb-failure-warning-light/?hl=%2Bblown+%2Bbulb+%2Bwarning#entry4266982

 

Next time the bulb warning light illuminates check in the Maxidot computer, it will tell you which bulb is giving you problems.

 

The car monitors resistance across each bulb, a bulb can still be working when flagging as being blown.

I have not seen anything on the maxidot which is odd.  I will have a look in the manual to see if there is any way to recall old warning messages

Used to happen all the time in our Audi A3 and as you say check and they were all working.  We did eventually find the repeater indicator in the n/s mirror had stopped working and thought that was the cause.  Had the light fixed but still had the false warning.  Never did sort it as we got rid of the car before it's first 2 year service and never bothered going to Audi to have it looked at under warranty.

 

Never had these problems with the Ford Anglia and you could start it with a handle as well.  Progress huh?

A bulbs resistance could go high and still work though I would suspect the bulb would have a short life in that case.

My Superb started doing this on the reversing lights but with an added twist, the fault would swap sides on a regular basis , sometimes right rear and other left rear in all cases the bulbs were working just fine. 

 

As it was coming up to 6 years and 90k we decided to change the car anyhow so never got to the bottom of it , I was worried that the fault was in the wiring for the boot where it flexs on the twindoor hinge

I have not seen anything on the maxidot which is odd. I will have a look in the manual to see if there is any way to recall old warning messages

The message in Maxidot is only available whilst the orange warning light is illuminated on the dash. If this goes out then the message disappears too.

Also be aware that in order to access the required menu to see the message the car needs to be stationary (safety precaution).

When the orange light appears you will get the message identifying the affected bulb flash up in Maxidot briefly, but without an audible warning (such as with the low fuel warning etc.) So it is therefore easy to miss it.

Until the orange light returns the only way to identify the affected bulb is to run a fault scan using VCDS, or to ask a dealer to check.

My Superb started doing this on the reversing lights but with an added twist, the fault would swap sides on a regular basis , sometimes right rear and other left rear in all cases the bulbs were working just fine. 

 

As it was coming up to 6 years and 90k we decided to change the car anyhow so never got to the bottom of it , I was worried that the fault was in the wiring for the boot where it flexs on the twindoor hinge

This is one of the warning signs for the breakdown of wires in the twindoor hinge

Silver1011, Thanks for the comprehensive answer. I still haven't found it because it is not displaying on the Maxidot which is frustrating. I saw the yellow light come on yesterday but the maxidot didn't display and I scrolled through the menu's with the car stationary and there was nothing.    I may start examining individual bulbs this weekend.

Hi Pesmog, I have had 2 Super's with this problem. I checked and replaced all the bulbs in the rear and tailgate and still had the problem, both had the twin-door wiring problem, you can find linked to the repair on the site.

I would allow yourself a 2-3 hour window to do the repair if you are a competent DIYer or 4-5 hours if a novice. better to do this repair while you can still open the big boot. I left it on the first one till the boot would not open and it was a right pain.

Plan ahead and have enough wire at hand to do the job. I would plan to split the loom and bring the wires down both sides of the bootlid, reducing the chances of a recurrence. don't use oversized cables this only makes the job harder and increases the chance of recurrence.

 

To get the supplies, two gauges of wire, shrink-wrap and loom tape, take off the cover from the small boot lid and you will see the size of the wires you will need there are two sizes. I drove to my local MAPLIN store and had one of the staff come out and have a look. plan to cut and repair all the wires. The wires travel down the left side of the lid, I split tem and re directed half of them up and along the top and down the right. the routing across the top was a bit of a fiddle, I used a stiff wire to negotiate the route inside the frame at the top and then used it to draw through the new wires, I replaced the wires down the left side also, they were not long enough to take the repair section away from the hinge point. get a supply of shrink wrap to suit the wires you bought. Stagger the solder joins in the loom and make the joins as small as needed so you don't end up with a lump in one place. I used loom tape to bind the new wire bundles before I routed them, this is like non adhesive thin insulating tape, I also sprayed the inside of the hinge channels with light spray grease to help the new loom move inside the channel. On the left-hand side make sure you do the joins well away from the hinge section or it will be hard to get the loom back into place. I had help routing the wires to avoid scraping off the insulation as I pulled the wires through the channels, one feeding in the other gently pulling. good luck.

An update on this. A couple of weeks ago I removed both rear light clusters and examined the bulbs using a magnifying glass. I could find no fault with any of the bulbs. Working on the basis that it is best to do the simple fixes first I then re-seated all the bulbs a few times to hopefully improve the contact between the mount and the bulb.  Much to my surprise it fixed the problem and I have had no rogue bulb failure messages for 13 days so I think I can hopefully declare it fixed.

 

As an aside, something I discovered while checking the bulbs is that the brake lamp bulb is only a 16 watt capless type. Every other car I have ever owned always had 21 Watt brake lamps.

Edited 10 October, 201510 yr by Pesmog

Two Irishmen were driving home one night when one asked the other to check if the car's indicators are working.

He promptly sticks his head out the window and says: "Yes,no,yes,no,yes,no,yes,no"

Two Irishmen were driving home one night when one asked the other to check if the car's indicators are working.

He promptly sticks his head out the window and says: "Yes,no,yes,no,yes,no,yes,no"

If only your rugby team were as good as your jokes. LOL

At least they beat the English :-)

This weekend, the orange warning light for bulb failure came on my dash, plus the message is the Maxidot (Check rear right side light). Like others on this thread, I too can report that on visual inspection, all lights seemed to be working, front and rear. So I then tackled the rear light cluster on the RHS and found that one of the smaller side bulbs was off, but as soon as i gave it a little wriggle, it lite back up. So it's obviously a loose connection, but as these are push in bulbs, there is no way to really tighten the connection??

 

I pushed it in firmly and tried it a few more times, it stayed working. Then this morning when i left for work, the warning was back on:(

 

So does anyone know of a way to improve the connection or maybe a new bulb might sort it? more reliable measures might be to replace the bulb holder? 

 

thanks

It was a common mistake on the MkII Octavia too.

 

It also uses four bulbs to perform to the role of tail (night) lights on each side.

 

So if one of the bulbs fails it can be difficult to spot. A quick look round the back of the car will reveal the rear lights are working, the issue is that it only takes one of the little W5W bulbs to go which is easily missed.

 

I'd try a new bulb before trying to replace the bulb holder.

 

As they are a push fit they can be fixed by bending the contacts in the bulb holder closer together, but not with the battery still connected 

A bulbs resistance could go high and still work though I would suspect the bulb would have a short life in that case

 

This would explain what we had.... warning for front park light yet park light was working. A week later the bulb failed. Its like ESP!!!!

this issue annoyed the hell out of me on our mercedes w210, but i solved this issue by sanding the contacts with 1500 sandpaper( even if clean), and discovered that the car only likes osram bulbs !

also our superb gave me the warning regarding the plate lights, one bulb was clearly dimmer than its sister, sanding solved it.

 

So does anyone know of a way to improve the connection..

 a little solder on it should do the trick.

Edited 23 October, 201510 yr by HashemM

Had a similar issue with my twin door superb. Dash displaying a left reverse bulb out but when replaced the bulb indicator was still lit on the dash. As per paddymallon's post above, i removed the trim on the boot I disconnected the plugs and pulled the loom backwards towards the roof and found that there was a small blue wire broken just where the saloon boot opens from the twin door on the left side. A few more wires had stress damage from the boot opening and closing in saloon mode . . Used some extra wire to extend the wires. Soldered and used shrink tube and rewapped the loom. Solved the issue for me. So I'd like to confirm that this is indeed a fix if you have a bulb indicator on dash related to rear lights but bulbs ok. 

Edited 2 September, 20178 yr by fidget76

I know this is an old thread but I’m looking for suggestions to solve a false warning light on my my 2 Skoda Superb.

I’ve got a bulb out warning light. The display states that it’s the front left sidelight. Both front sidelights are fine. I’ve cleaned the connectors and replaced the bulbs. There is a good connection. I’ve disconnected the battery to try a reset. I still have the bulb out warning light and the maxi dot message to say the bulb is out. I e checked all the other bulbs and they look fine. At the same time, my Columbus head unit is in German and won’t reset and my phone won’t stay connected after restarting the car. It doesn’t seem like it could be related but it’s all happened at the same time.

Any suggestions?

Scratch that. In was a bad connection all along. The radio is still in German though 🤪