Hi there. I have a 2009 Octavia TDI PD Elegance estate which is a brilliant car. I imported it to France around 4 years ago and it is now on French plates. So far so good. Yesterday I took it for its 2 yearly Control Techniique (MOT) and it failed due to the fog light being on the right hand side. Apparently the regs have changed recently. So I am looking for help/advice as to what I can do to overcome this problem please. Is it a question of having something recorded or am I looking at having to have an additional light added in order to get it through its test? Thanks in anticipation.

have you looked at the 2 light clusters? there will probably be an unused socket on the lhs, try a bulb in it, it may be prewired and so work, if it doesn't just connect the sockets across the boot space, had to do it on my Yeti some time ago!

Thanks..will give it a try .

where in france?, you may be able to activate the lhs socket with vcds if there is a connection to the vacant socket and the bulb doesn't work. are there any bodies in your bit of froggie land with vcds. I have one but i'm in finistere

Edited 22 August, 20187 yr by Frenchtone

If there is no Fog Light there for being used that can be activated then you will need a set of Tail Lights for a Left Hand Drive car, or get that additional Fog Light fitted and disable the current one as the regulations probably require that if there are 2 Rear Fog lights they match as a pair, as rear reflectors need to.

My husband is going to have a look at the light cluster  shortly. We’re south of Limoges so a mere 575km from you in  Finistere but I will bear your offer in mind. Thank you.

A 2009 Octavia should already have the bulb, wiring and reflector in place as it's also used as a tail light.

 

If it's got pre-FL electronics (CECM) then it's a five minute job with VCDS to enable the second fog light.

 

If it's got FL electronics (BCM) then it's a five minute job with VCP/ODIS to enable the second fog light, it won't be possible with VCDS.

What are FL electronics and what is a CECM....you might as well be talking Greek to me!

3 minutes ago, Confused87 said:

What are FL electronics and what is a CECM....you might as well be talking Greek to me!

 

Ένα Octavia 2009 θα πρέπει να έχει ήδη το βολβό, την καλωδίωση και τον ανακλαστήρα στη θέση του καθώς χρησιμοποιείται επίσης ως οπίσθιο φως.
 
Εάν έχει προ-FL ηλεκτρονικά (CECM) τότε είναι μια εργασία πέντε λεπτών με VCDS για να ενεργοποιήσετε το δεύτερο φως ομίχλης.
 
Εάν έχει FL ηλεκτρονικά (BCM) τότε είναι μια εργασία πέντε λεπτών με VCP / ODIS για να ενεργοποιήσετε το δεύτερο φως ομίχλης, δεν θα είναι δυνατή με VCDS.

 

There you go........................

 

Always happy to help.   

Edited 22 August, 20187 yr by Auric Goldfinger

 Very amusing...go to the top of the class! About to investigate but if anyone could enlighten me, it would be appreciated. My husband is an aeronautical engineer but doesn’t know a huge amount about cars so not much help on the jargon front!

f/l  face lift, no idea other stuff  -- do you have a local garage not franchised to the vw group but focus on sericing vehicles from that group, if the cables etc are present they would use their box to activate the light, it would also be a lot cheaper than a franchised outfit, least that's what I've found here in 29!

Latest update...the bulb on the offending fog light is present but it just doesn’t glow as brightly when the lights are turned on at the dashboard. Husband now considering wiring across from existing fog in right to that on the left to see if this will make any difference. Anyone else tried this?

1 hour ago, Confused87 said:

What are FL electronics and what is a CECM....you might as well be talking Greek to me!

 

The MK2 Octavia was produced from ~2004 to ~2013, in ~2009 it had a facelift (FL) where the body and electronics were updated. Generally speaking, they are referred to as a MK2 pre-FL and MK2 FL.

 

On a pre-FL cars, the electronics had a separate CECM and CCM (Central Electronics Control Module and Convenience Control Module), on FL cars, these modules were combined to give a single BCM (Body Control Module). To make things more fun, some late pre-FL cars were fitted with FL electronics. Given your car is a 2009 it could have either version of the control module.

 

To cut things short, the CECM or BCM is responsible for controlling the external lighting including the rear fog lights. Either can be reprogrammed to switch the rear fog or enable both as mentioned in my previous post.

 

2 minutes ago, Confused87 said:

Latest update...the bulb on the offending fog light is present but it just doesn’t glow as brightly when the lights are turned on at the dashboard. Husband now considering wiring across from existing fog in right to that on the left to see if this will make any difference. Anyone else tried this?

 

If you start adding wires across the car, you WILL get fault codes, warning lights and potentially damage the cars electronics!

 

To 'fix' this by modifying the lighting, you'll need to switch the feeds to both rear fogs rather than just bridging them.

Your advice and jargon busting is very much appreciated. Looks like we’ll have to find a friendly VW/Skoda garage who can help. Funnily enough, I called a Skoda garage back in the UK yesterday and they didn’t have a clue. Thanks again.

my yeti  late 2013 had the uk offside light illuminated , I extended the wiring to the nearside uk and , have had no probs with warnings etc, its run like that for 2.5 yrs, - at mot time a suggestion was made to remove the rhs offside uk bulb, which I have done again with no apparent probs

21 minutes ago, Frenchtone said:

my yeti  late 2013 had the uk offside light illuminated , I extended the wiring to the nearside uk and , have had no probs with warnings etc, its run like that for 2.5 yrs, - at mot time a suggestion was made to remove the rhs offside uk bulb, which I have done again with no apparent probs

 

The Yeti only has wiring to one fog light. The Octavia has it to both as it's also used as a tail light.

Well my husband has done something along those lines...by extending the wire from the right hand fog to the left and then adding another wire from the left to the right and hey presto, the left hand fog has now replaced the right hand fog. Best I get it back to the garage quickly for its revisit! 

Thank you one and all for your help.