I have a 2014 Diesel VRS estate which had its first MOT in April 2017. I bought it in August 2017 and today is the first time I've taken it for an MOT.

 

I got a call from my local mechanic saying the car had failed. The failure was because the only working fog light on my car is on the nearside, when the MOT regulations say;

Quote

This inspection applies to the one rear fog lamp which is required to be fitted to the centre or offside

 

 

Rather than a blown bulb the tester determined it was a software issue, using vehicle diagnostics he was able to get the offside fog light to illuminate and pass the test, but once no longer in diagnostic mode only the nearside fog lamp illuminates, and he suggested it needs Skoda to resolve the issue.

 

This is actually the second time I've heard of this issue. A friend was returning her leased Seat Ibiza but needed to MOT the car before returning it, and it failed because the only the nearside rear fog light worked. She was in a better position because she was returning it and collecting a new lease car,  Seat confirmed it was a build issue and were happy to fix the issue. In my case I suspect I have the same 'oddly configured car' issue and that it probably should have failed its MOT last year (which ironically was done by a Skoda dealer).

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue, and if so, how likely are Skoda to fix what appears to be a build mistake on a 4 year old car (albeit hopefully just a software configuration issue).

Something doesn't sound right...

 

To my knowledge only 1 rear fog light is enabled from factory on UK cars, and this is the offside. This is how my 63 plate Octavia VRS was. Through coding, I also enabled the other nearside fog light too.

 

As you didn't buy new, could it be that the previous owner through coding enabled the nearside but disabled the offside?

 

Unless you have warranty or some recourse from the dealer you bought from, I'd say your best bet is to see someone with VCDS and get the coding checked. A dealer will probably charge a "diagnostic fee" + time to fix.

Edited 4 April, 20188 yr by ahenners

You do not know if a Build Mistake if a used car.

 

People ask all the time about changing the rear Fog for driving on Continental Europe, so your might have been on Continental Europe for some time.

Looks like you will have to mod it back to standard.

8 minutes ago, ahenners said:

To my knowledge only 1 rear fog light is enabled from factory on UK cars, and this is the offside. 

 Only one fog light is enabled, but in my car it's the nearside. If it had been modded by the previous owner, why swap sides?

15 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

You do not know if a Build Mistake if a used car.

 

You're right, I don't know, but even in my small circle I know of another VAG car that was delivered to UK with incorrectly configured fog lights that wasn't picked up until MOT time.

3 minutes ago, GoodDoc said:

 Only one fog light is enabled, but in my car it's the nearside. If it had been modded by the previous owner, why swap sides?

 

As @AwaoffSki alluded to in his post, it could be a result of spending some time in continental Europe or misconfiguration.

 

Your case is a bit different to the Ibiza example, as you bought used, whereas the Ibiza was leased and therefore only had the 1 owner when the issue was found.

 

It could have been a factory error, it could have been the previous owner changing stuff, or it could be another issue at play. It's not as clear cut in this case.

 

Edited 4 April, 20188 yr by ahenners

Do they come with bulbs fitted on both sides, I assumed the near side bulb was not fitted.

9 minutes ago, match14 said:

Do they come with bulbs fitted on both sides, I assumed the near side bulb was not fitted.

 

I believe they do, with left or right being activated depending on where the car is sold. As has been said as well, you can activate both if being symmetrical is your thing. 

Is there not a 'lights' setting on infotainment system for driving on the left or on the right. Maybe thats just for the Xenon headlight masking but could switch the rear fog too.

 

CAR - settings - light - light assistance - travel mode - R-hand-traffic

 

Is this a case of the car being so intelligent it's left us all completely foxed?

Edited 5 April, 20188 yr by Hermit

3 hours ago, match14 said:

Do they come with bulbs fitted on both sides, I assumed the near side bulb was not fitted.

 

Yes, both the LED and non-LED tail lights (hatch and estate) get regular incandescent rear fog lights.

 

On the non-LED clusters the foglight bulb performs the role of tail light (lower part of the 'C' shape) and foglight by illuminating the single filament bulb at different intensities.

 

On the LED clusters the tail light function is all-LED, the foglight bulbs are there on both sides but they only ever perform the role of fog light.

 

There are foglight bulbs fitted to both sides, it is the coding that dictates which side (or both) are turned on.

 

I have both sides activated on our 2016 Octavia Scout.

 

There were quite a few early Octavia's that were leased by the armed forces in the UK and taken over to Germany. Skoda UK coded them to operate overseas (including swapping over the foglight), but when the cars came back to the UK a lot of owners didn't go to the effort or expense of changing them back.

 

Do you know the history of the car from new?

 

Worse case scenario is you'll need to pay a Skoda dealer their standard diagnostic fee (£65-£90) to swap it over.

 

 

Edited 5 April, 20188 yr by silver1011

As Hermit said I put my 2014 vRS into travel mode / RH traffic from the light settings and the fog lamp swapped over to the near side. Worth a check I suppose? 

There are a lot of military personnel that purchase cars from UK for use on the continent. Need to have the fogs recoded (or hardwired if tight) to pass the local light test. If you don’t have VCDS it costs 45-60 euros for the dealer to switch. However, the cars are generally sold at the 12 month point and returned to the UK market. The less scrupulous people returning the cars will not fork out the cash for the fogs to be swapped back, hence the problem you are experiencing.

 

Find someone with VCDS on the forum, and ask them nicely to recode it back for you. 5 minute job.

Forgot to mention, if based in the North East give me a shout and I’ll assist.

On 05/04/2018 at 14:27, Hermit said:

Is there not a 'lights' setting on infotainment system for driving on the left or on the right. Maybe thats just for the Xenon headlight masking but could switch the rear fog too.

 

CAR - settings - light - light assistance - travel mode - R-hand-traffic

 

Is this a case of the car being so intelligent it's left us all completely foxed?

 

Give that man a prize. The car was indeed in "R-hand traffic" mode. Once I switched it to "L-hand traffic" the offside fog lamp switched on, and the near side fog lamp was nowhere to be seen.

 

That may have saved me an embarrassing trip to a Skoda dealer.

 

Edit: Now I'm wondering what my headlights have been doing for God knows how long.

Edited 6 April, 20188 yr by GoodDoc
General pondering

Clever box of tricks. I guess we just don't notice the change to rear fogs because its behind us and we're not really bothered if its left or right (unless it fails the MOT!).

 

Can I choose a prize?   

Can I have Andyasjl lovely blue Scout he had for sale - obviously he doesn't really want it and I do, I do, I do.

Hopefully your headlights will be much better, in travel mode the AFS is disabled, the headlight pattern would of been strange for an MOT.

 

Looking at the manual it doesn’t describe the behaviour of the fog lamp in tourist mode, I just tested it and found it swapped, simply (too) clever.

 

 

Odd that on my own car when I change to travel mode (RHS traffic) I can see the headlight beam change but the rear fog stays lit on the offside only. Doesn't help if I stop and restart. It's not a problem as I don't plan to travel that far.

 

64 plate '15' model DSG 184HP Scout with Bi-Xenons and so Adaptive Front-light System (Light Assist enabled on Car-Setup-Lights), Lane Assist etc

 

Thought I'd check out the lights as I've not driven it in the dark since I had it a couple of weeks back. Bi-Xenons are brilliant - literally. Gutted when I realised I don't have the 'Intelligent Light Assistant', just the 'adaptive' so no automatic high beam and fancy masking etc. Don't suppose it can be enabled via VCDS (I have the lane assist camera)?

8 hours ago, Hermit said:

Odd that on my own car when I change to travel mode (RHS traffic) I can see the headlight beam change but the rear fog stays lit on the offside only. Doesn't help if I stop and restart. It's not a problem as I don't plan to travel that far.

 

64 plate '15' model DSG 184HP Scout with Bi-Xenons and so Adaptive Front-light System (Light Assist enabled on Car-Setup-Lights), Lane Assist etc

 

Thought I'd check out the lights as I've not driven it in the dark since I had it a couple of weeks back. Bi-Xenons are brilliant - literally. Gutted when I realised I don't have the 'Intelligent Light Assistant', just the 'adaptive' so no automatic high beam and fancy masking etc. Don't suppose it can be enabled via VCDS (I have the lane assist camera)?

 

It's not capable of the fancy masking or changing the shape of the beam to go around traffic etc. It's just a simple on/off based on whether there's light ahead. Works quite well though and can be enabled via VCDS.

Well, thats good news.

The Intelligent VW light assist and it's partial masking of the car ahead allowing lights to remain on hi-beam is really impressive. 

I never thought of it till I saw it and now I have a desire for it. Thats what the tech marketing people do to you.

 

Thanks 

Edited 7 April, 20188 yr by Hermit
Poor grammar - I'm English

Every day’s a school day...

 

The idea of the fog switching with the lights whilst driving on the continent was suggested on this forum ages ago; this would have saved me a fortune whilst living in Germany.