Hello,

 

I've had an issue on my Skoda Octavia Estate(2012) for almost a year.

 

About a year ago I picked my car up from the dealership having had a service/mot, immediately when I started the car up the Light Bulb Warning light came on. I switched the car off and then back on again and then the warning light went out.

 

So this warning light comes on and off intermittently, I check the bulbs of the car but they all seem to be fine. Am I right in thinking that if it was a dodgy bulb it would have failed after a year?

 

I was wondering if anyone has any idea how to resolve this?

 

 

Also is there anything obvious that a dealer might have done during a service either deliberate or accidentally. So any things I should check out?

 

Could it be related to fuses or earth? If so, how would I go about checking that?

 

As a final question, its due for its MOT in about a month, I was wondering would it fail on this, even though all of the lights appear to be ok?

 

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Ben

 

It could be a loose bulb holder or something similar.

The best plan would be to get a local member with VCDS to do a scan, this will narrow it down to which bulb(s) the car doesn't like.

Hopefully it'll just be one which will make further investigation much easier!

I've had the same problem in the past and its a kind of warning that one of the bulbs is on its way out, but I've never had it last a year. Just need to hope it appears soon and then you can check all the bulbs. Licence plate bulbs are a common one to overlook.

When I scanned with Carista it said Terminal 30 which is a 30 amp fuse in the box under the bonnet. Several lights on the car would go off but would come back after a restart but not always. The fuse looked slightly marked on one side but wasn't broken. Changed it and it's been fine since. Just before this it had a service and part of it is the battery health check. Not sure if they did something then.

Edited 27 February, 201610 yr by MartynVRS

Mine just munched through a sub 2 month old GE dip beam bulb.  My challenge is now to get Halfords to swap the bulb - with packaging, but no receipt.....

 

If you can't get quick access to VCDS then you might find that turning on your lights and then giving the clusters a good thump might cause a bulb to flicker.

Edited 27 February, 201610 yr by mbames

Have you checked the brake lights?

Mine flashed a warning (no Maxidot) and I went round the car several times looking for a bike out without thinking about the brake lights!)

Sounds too consistent (on starting) to be a loose bulb, otherwise you'd get random warnings whilst driving as well.

Thanks for all the suggestions, the light doesn't always come on at startup, for example you might be driving for a while and turn the lights on and there will be no warning light, however at some point on the journey the warning light might come on and then won't go off until restarting the car(when it may or may not stay off)

 

I did have a quick check this morning and it did almost appear like one of the Full Beam was slower to light up than the other, but will have to check as might have been mistaken. It would seem strange to me if it was the Full Beam Bulb as that's not being used most of the time, but maybe the light doesn't have to be use for the warning light appear.

 

I think a more thorough check of the bulbs is needed, hopefully be able to do that later.

 

 

Thanks

I've had this problem several times with the RH daylight bulb.

First time I checked I didn't notice any problem and refitted the bulb which looked to have a solid filament, only to have a permanent failure short afterward.

After a further check, I realized that the problem WAS in the bulb. Only, it was not a burned filament – as it usually happens – but a detachment of the back contact of the bulb itself: I found the tiny metal round spot which should touch the contacts in the lamp to have fallen off.

I think this could be due to the low quality of bulbs (I bought them on Ebay at about 1cent for the ton...) and likely the RH one is subject to more vibrations by road holes/bumps/etc. (I drive on the right, here).

I'm thinking about replacing them with LED ones. Any suggestions/directions/etc.?

Edited 27 February, 201610 yr by duro

Just a follow up to this issue. I eventually resolved this by changing the number plate bulbs as I happened to have a box of spare ones anyway.

 

The bulbs were still working, but the glass did look a bit dark, so not sure if that is an indicator of them deteriorating or not. I know someone had mentioned looking at this bulb before, so thanks to you.

 

Since then, no warning light at all and the car passed its MOT today, so looks like a fix to me.