My FL Octy Elegance has Xenon headlights. Bulb failure warning has just popped up on Maxidot -- sure enough, LH front parking light is out. Not a major problem, but the yellow warning light is a bit annoying. 

 

Owner's manual says it's a dealer job to replace the parking light bulb, presumably because it's a light cluster out job and the xenons have to be set up correctly afterwards. Am I right, and should I just resign myself to sitting in the dealer's waiting area for an hour while they fix it?

Not at all.

 

Firstly, do you have DRL's? If you do I believe they are used the as "parking light" not the 501 bulb found in the headlight cluster so i'd check which bulb is actually out before you start taking the headlight out.

 

To remove the headlight its a matter of removing the plastic nut and pulling the lever. Then it will slide forwards and allow you to remove the loom and take the unit out.

Only the vRS uses the LED DRL's as side / parking lights.

 

The Elegance should use this format...

 

 

Someone had the exact same issue as you a few weeks ago, the ballast for the xenon bulb needs removing to gain access to the W5W side light bulb.

 

See here for pictures...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/385173-ok-i-surrender-how-do-i-replace-the-side-light-bulbs-in-my-car/?hl=%2Bsilver1011+%2Bxenon#entry4503303

No DRLs. The parking lights are at the top of the headlamp clusters (well, one is at the moment).

Something is a miss there then!?

 

If it is a facelift and a UK registered Elegance spec (as per the opening post) then you should have DRL's in the front bumper next to the foglights.

 

A lot of early MKII facelift cars had them fitted but the DRL's were not activated (can be done using VCDS) so I assume this is the case with your car, they are fitted but not working?

 

Either way the W5W sidelights are in the same place, as you point out on the top of each headlight, a bit like eyebrows!

 

The link I posted earlier shows the proper procedure as it is a little different for the xenon headlights.