Hello,

So I am a bit confused because my car has wing mirror lights that light up when I unlock the car and when I open either the passenger door or the driver door, but it doesn't seem to blink, and to be totally honest I am not sure if it's meant to so maybe you guys can enlighten me if it should before I start taking it apart? The light is on the other side of that little separator on the left side of the red circle which turns on with the unlock and opening of door.

 

I believe that there are two different types of reflector that are interchangeable and also fit the VW Polo, one has puddle light only, the other has indicator repeater light as well, I may have got that backwards, maybe its the indicator repeater thats standard and the puddle light an option.

 

Mine has both and the lens has contained water and formed algae in the past, I bought the wrong one off of E-bay, it would fit but only had the one light.

 

I recall that the ones with the two lights were silly money.

I just replaced mine. The "puddle light" lights up when you lock/unlock the door. The indicator repeater should flash when you indicate. If not it is an MOT Failure. The puddle light takes a 3W capsule bulb I think. The indicator is an LED and non serviceable so you need a whole bottom unit.

 

How old is your car? The older ones need a wiring loom adapter to fit a replacement. I needed mine in a hurry and to fit first go so I bought one from our local dealer. Total cost is £70 for the part and the adapter. You can get cheaper from ebay etc but if it doesn't work then there is the faff of returning it.

Strange that both sides would fail, perhaps a blown fuse.

 

One of mine failed, It's easy enough to disassemble the mirror unit.  Although everything checked out I had no power at the repeater, thankfully jiggling the wires that went down into the door whilst the indicator was on fixed the issue otherwise it'd mean stripping the door for access.

Maybe they are not fitted or enabled for Scandinavian countries?

 

Unlikely given that they have always been the leaders where road safety is concerned.

Don't you mean Volvo?

Edited 7 January, 20206 yr by MicMac

3 hours ago, Golf-Fiend said:

I just replaced mine. The "puddle light" lights up when you lock/unlock the door. The indicator repeater should flash when you indicate. If not it is an MOT Failure. The puddle light takes a 3W capsule bulb I think. The indicator is an LED and non serviceable so you need a whole bottom unit.

 

How old is your car? The older ones need a wiring loom adapter to fit a replacement. I needed mine in a hurry and to fit first go so I bought one from our local dealer. Total cost is £70 for the part and the adapter. You can get cheaper from ebay etc but if it doesn't work then there is the faff of returning it.

It's 2007 model. I might just order from eBay but I'll contact the dealer and check if it's worth going there since it's around £20 for both on eBay. It'll probably be ridiculous money at the dealer. 

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Maybe they are not fitted or enabled for Scandinavian countries?

 

Unlikely given that they have always been the leaders where road safety is concerned.

I'm sure they do. Almost all cars here have an indicator on the side (either the wing mirror or the panel around the tyres

@Agustnr So have the wing mirror indicators worked previously or not? or is the car new to you so you're not sure?

 

Do all the other indicators work correctly and does the indicator switch give any indication of a fault, ie rapid or intermittent flash?

How about notification from the CanBus system? (not sure if it covers these tiny led's though).

4 hours ago, Tilt said:

@Agustnr So have the wing mirror indicators worked previously or not? or is the car new to you so you're not sure?

 

Do all the other indicators work correctly and does the indicator switch give any indication of a fault, ie rapid or intermittent flash?

How about notification from the CanBus system? (not sure if it covers these tiny led's though).

I just bought this car a few months ago. I don't see any warning lights like if a bulb has blown in the instrument cluster and the maxidot display doesn't say anything either. The indicators work as expected. It's just curious to me really. 

I could only suspect water ingress on both sides then and that these are not monitored by the CanBus system.

 

If water ingress is the case, you may be able to get them working by disassembling the units and drying / cleaning them out............if you are lucky.

 

As you mention 'taking it apart', I say go for it. It would be an mot fail in this country, as mentioned.

There's two mirror system ..... Basic spec models have an indicator only ... More up market specs come with both a puddle light and indicator and the two are not to my knowledge interchangeable as I'm sure they've different plugs ... Standard replacement can be bought for around £17 with the puddle light unit jumping to over £30

 

Thd puddle light will illuminate when you open the door from inside or unlock the car with the key fob.... Puddle light is a wedge shaped 3w or 5w bulb just like the side light bulbs but the indicator is an LED and if it fails then unless you know how to replace it yourself then it's a case of buying a new lens unit 

 

Reading your post again it looks as if you're questioning should the puddle light flash along with the indicator and the answer to that is no it doesn't flash 

Edited 8 January, 20206 yr by labman1001

10 minutes ago, labman1001 said:

There's two mirror system ..... Basic spec models have an indicator only ... More up market specs come with both a puddle light and indicator and the two are not to my knowledge interchangeable as I'm sure they've different plugs ... Standard replacement can be bought for around £17 with the puddle light unit jumping to over £30

 

Thd puddle light will illuminate when you open the door from inside or unlock the car with the key fob.... Puddle light is a wedge shaped 3w or 5w bulb just like the side light bulbs but the indicator is an LED and if it fails then unless you know how to replace it yourself then it's a case of buying a new lens unit 

 

Reading your post again it looks as if you're questioning should the puddle light flash along with the indicator and the answer to that is no it doesn't flash 

 

I don't think it is a failure in Iceland since it did not get flagged at technical inspection (we get a paper with all the things that will be flagged). 

I suppose I will just try to take it apart and see if I can fix it.

 

14 hours ago, labman1001 said:

Reading your post again it looks as if you're questioning should the puddle light flash along with the indicator and the answer to that is no it doesn't flash 

 

It's another one of them 'is it lost in translation' posts, lol.

.

I too questioned the question, but after reading through all of the posts / replies it seems to confirm that the little indicator led's on both sides of the car do not work. 

Still seems weird though and they would definitely fail the mot in this country at least.

 

If the led indicators lights do flash then it would be a silly question IMO to ask if the puddle lights should also flash along with them.

 

 

I have managed to repair mine before to get it through an mot (which it did) but it was failed the following year as it was too dim. The superglue i used to re-stick lens back together discoloured the lens a little. They weren't quite as expensive then as they have become now with puddle lights.

 

The puddle light is not connected to the CanBus and an led bulb suits this job fine.

Edited 9 January, 20206 yr by Tilt

5 hours ago, Tilt said:

 

It's another one of them 'is it lost in translation' posts, lol.

.

I too questioned the question, but after reading through all of the posts / replies it seems to confirm that the little indicator led's on both sides of the car do not work. 

Still seems weird though and they would definitely fail the mot in this country at least.

 

If the led indicators lights do flash then it would be a silly question IMO to ask if the puddle lights should also flash along with them.

 

 

I have managed to repair mine before to get it through an mot (which it did) but it was failed the following year as it was too dim. The superglue i used to re-stick lens back together discoloured the lens a little. They weren't quite as expensive then as they have become now with puddle lights.

 

The puddle light is not connected to the CanBus and an led bulb suits this job fine.

 

Yeah, I wasn't asking about the puddle lights, but rather I found it weird that my car would only be equipped with puddle lights and not an indicator light, as I would imagine a puddle light is more of a premium than an indicator light. 
However, as I stated, for some reason it is not a failure here in Iceland, as it passed through inspection with 1 fault which was nowhere near the electrical components, but hey, we will see what happens when I rip it apart later. 

@Agustnr Is your car left hand or right hand drive???

 

I would check with your local dealers if indicators are installed before you take them apart...

Saying that, i'm more thinking when I had to prise my lens off to clean them out rather than just to check if you have led's in there.

 

I would definitely recommend installing led's in the puddle lamp holders whilst you have them apart. A good bit brighter and look loads better too.

3 hours ago, Tilt said:

 

 

I would definitely recommend installing led's in the puddle lamp holders whilst you have them apart. A good bit brighter and look loads better too.

 

 

What lamps fit in here then? I'd be interested to know too.

They all have LED indicators / repeaters / turn signals built-in, regardless of the market the car is sold in.

 

They are prone to water ingress though which eventually causes the LED to fail...

 

 

@Golf-Fiend IIRC they are same type as sidelight bulbs (w5w i think.

 

It was ages ago that I installed mine. I originally purchased them for my sidelights iirc but they came with a resistor and I did not want to fit one of these so I found some proper CanBus compatible (resistor built in I think) ones which are still in the sidelights.

It was when I had to mend the indicator that I noticed the type of bulb and tried these ones as I already had them. Perfect.

 

 

20 hours ago, Tilt said:

@Agustnr Is your car left hand or right hand drive???

 

I would check with your local dealers if indicators are installed before you take them apart...

Saying that, i'm more thinking when I had to prise my lens off to clean them out rather than just to check if you have led's in there.

 

I would definitely recommend installing led's in the puddle lamp holders whilst you have them apart. A good bit brighter and look loads better too.

It's right hand drive

Resurrection for hopefuls - check that there isn't damage at either of the plugs or their connectors. I used some kwiksteel & a tiny cable tie to repair the socket on mine.