Hi.

 

Has anyone encountered this problem? The LED's on the right side are dead while turn signal and break light still work. Also the small light LED's on the boot are also dead.

 

I get the following error code. 

B12BF15 (see pic for more details)

 

Milage 201k.

 

Thanks for the help.

The fact both your right inner and right outer cluster have both gone suggests it's not likely the light units.. Its a black and red wire for the tail lights on the right side of the vehicle for right hand drive 2016 notchbacks. If it were me, I'd be pulling the trim and following that wire back for damage. The smart approach would be to bell test the wire from each end first. 

11 hours ago, AlVal said:

The fact both your right inner and right outer cluster have both gone suggests it's not likely the light units.. Its a black and red wire for the tail lights on the right side of the vehicle for right hand drive 2016 notchbacks. If it were me, I'd be pulling the trim and following that wire back for damage. The smart approach would be to bell test the wire from each end first. 

 

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the tip. 

 

Does anyone know if the left and right unit has the same connector (not mirrored or anything)? I was thinking if I should try connecting the right tail light to the left side to make sure the light unit is ok, or vise versa.

Connectors definitely the same, and I just checked the pinouts to see if the wiring positions are the same, and they are except on the inner clusters there's no wire for fog light on one side, so for your purposes all the same

Ok, so I did the swap and the faulty light did not work on the left side, meanwhile the workong light also worked on the right side. So on conclusion, it seems like the PCB that operates the LEDs is damaged. So my options are to replace the housing.. basically. But I'm tempted to try to crack open the housing and have a look at the damage.

 

Thanks for the help and support.

If you go and have a look:

 

Look for cracked solder joints. 

30 minutes ago, Tin82 said:

If you go and have a look:

 

Look for cracked solder joints. 

Thanks for the tip. Is this from the tail light pcb or something else? I'm assuming the only option I have is to cut through the black silicone seal between the "glass" and the housing to get to the pcb. 

2 minutes ago, Skodillac83 said:

Thanks for the tip. Is this from the tail light pcb or something else? I'm assuming the only option I have is to cut through the black silicone seal between the "glass" and the housing to get to the pcb. 

The picture is not from the taillight. It is a generic picture from internet. My girlfriends a3 also had failing led lights. The problem was a broken solder joint. They are sometimes difficult to spot. 

When you switched places with the outer cluster, what happened with the inner clusters? You said the right inner leds were also gone - did the inner cluster problem change sides when you changed the outer clusters around? 

On 30/03/2021 at 23:33, AlVal said:

When you switched places with the outer cluster, what happened with the inner clusters? You said the right inner leds were also gone - did the inner cluster problem change sides when you changed the outer clusters around? 

I had a similar problem.  The middle lamp does not light up after switching sides.  I will mention that the lamp sometimes lights up and sometimes not.