Hello,

 

(Sorry on my English language)

I need to change 3rd brake light (part. nr. 5J9945097, price 65eur) on Fabia Mk2 Combi facelift from 2011.
Skoda wants further 65eur (half-hour of work) for change here in Sweden,

I'm thinking if someone of you is already changed and can share experience, is that  tricky to change light self or is better to leave Skoda to do the job  ?

Hello and welcome to this forum!

 

Your English is good so don't worry about that.

 

I replaced this light on my wife's old Polo, a 2002 car, I think that it involved removing the plastic trim on the rear hatch.

 

Why are you replacing it, if it has stopped working, is that because the foam seal round the assembly is letting water past and so damaging the light assembly, on my wife's old Polo, one of the voltage rails or bus bars had rotted through and worse than that, the power connector pins very damaged because the connector plugs directly into the zinc plated ends of the power rails or bus bars, again because water was passing in through the seal.  I ended up buying an aftermarket 12V rated plug and socket and fitting the socket connector to the car side wiring and the light side was connected to the plug connector to the light assembly using the leads provided, just soldered the wires to a convenient point on the power rails or bus bars.

Edit:- if I had been cleverer or if that car was not used every day, I could have left the original light assembly in use and soldered the new connector to it - and used a sealer to make the foam seal work again.

Edited 6 February, 20197 yr by rum4mo

12 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Hello and welcome to this forum!

 

Your English is good so don't worry about that.

 

I replaced this light on my wife's old Polo, a 2002 car, I think that it involved removing the plastic trim on the rear hatch.

 

Why are you replacing it, if it has stopped working, is that because the foam seal round the assembly is letting water past and so damaging the light assembly, on my wife's old Polo, one of the voltage rails or bus bars had rotted through and worse than that, the power connector pins very damaged because the connector plugs directly into the zinc plated ends of the power rails or bus bars, again because water was passing in through the seal.  I ended up buying an aftermarket 12V rated plug and socket and fitting the socket connector to the car side wiring and the light side was connected to the plug connector to the light assembly using the leads provided, just soldered the wires to a convenient point on the power rails or bus bars.

Edit:- if I had been cleverer or if that car was not used every day, I could have left the original light assembly in use and soldered the new connector to it - and used a sealer to make the foam seal work again.

 

Thank you for answering!

Unfortunately, Polo and Fabia does not have same system for 3rd brake light.
There is no plastic trim behind  the light, only one gummy seal (0,5 cm in diameter) which can be removed but I don't  see any screw or plastic clip. 
I don'y know how  I can remove light from the car :(

UPDATE:
Found this link, but this is only for hatchback :(
Fabia MK2 High-level brake light

UPDATE:
Found this instruction for Combi/Estate, but on Russian :(
You can see at there is no easy access, only one hole ca 0,5cm in diameter ...
I have try to "feel" the place with the screwdriver from the picture, but without success. It's very hard to do it on "blind".
 

Yes, sounds like it, good luck, I'm sure you will be able to unclip it! 

update:
Unfortunately I didn't manage to unclip the 3rd brake light.
I went to Skoda in the end and they find at there was 2 wires damaged in the gummy part between car and rear door.
They have patch wires and brake light start to work immediately , total cost for repair was 80eur :(.