Hi all,
Well this is a new one on me - this evening both brake lights ceased to work on my '01Y Octavia estate (not bulb failure), however the LED 3rd brake light above the back window still lights up fully when braking, but it remains dimly lit all the time the engine is on.
Where do I start looking?
Cheers,
Dave.
Oh yes, and it's done 249,350 miles. Never had anything remotely like this before though.
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A long shot but try to check the brake light switch. Find the wires going into the switch and join them together. All the brake lights should light. If they do it's the switch. If they don't I would check the earths. If there's a faulty earth you may find that the flashers, parking lights, etc. will also glow slightly when you press the brake pedal.
Another long shot but have you changed a brake light bulb recently; if so did you use the correct bulbs? (please don't be insulted!)
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I've had the same problem on my Bora today (basically the same car), which was discovered during its MOT....
They were working fine last night and I was very surprised that both should go (I have to reverse out of my drive so have to stop part way to check for pedestrians and traffic, hence I know if they are operative). The third rear window brake light was unaffected.
Replacing them brought back normal service but I'm still curious as to why two went at once - it's always been one bulb on the rare occasion its happened to me. It could be that the additional load on the good bulb blows it as well.
In my Bora's case it's just a brake light bulb and not a combined type (i.e. 21/5w).
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They were working fine last night and I was very surprised that both should go, The third rear window brake light was unaffected.
Strangely enough that's what it was, both brake light bulbs failing at the same time! I discounted it at first because the one bulb I checked didn't appear to have any damage to the filament, but normal service was resumed after both bulbs were changed. What are the chances of both brake lights failing simultaneously? Actually, on a car with that sort of mileage, that's already had probably 6 or 8 brake light bulbs in each side, they would be fairly high I would guess.
BTW Re: the high level LED brake light staying dimly lit all the time... I can only imagine the diagnostic circuit for bulb failure carries a high enough current to produce this effect in the remaining light when more than one bulb has gone?
The Skoda doesn't have a bulb failure warning per se, but the glowplug light had been flashing from the morning I found the brake light problem until I fixed it! Apparently a flashing glowplug symbol indicates "electrical system fault". Reminds me of that email about Microsoft making cars with only a "general car fault" light and no dials or gauges...
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Not that it helps much, but I followed a fairly new Golf doing exactly the same thing recently. Perhaps it's a peculiar VW fault.
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To stray slightly, I've bought and installed the Halfords' Super Brilliance halogen headlight bulbs in my Bora this morning - supposed to provide up to 50 per cent more light.
Now have to wait until it goes dark to find out if they are any better.
Basic Bosch bulbs are £11.99 each so Halfords' buy one, get one free offer is good value at £12.99; I also now have two spare bulbs...:-)
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Do do do do do do do do.....
I bought one and got one free on Sunday! I've had Osram Silverstar 50% brighter xenon headlight bulbs for the last two years, blown one a year or every 80,000 miles. IMO they are well worth the money on the Octavia, I get a much clearer dip beam cutoff, a more penetrating main beam, and most importantly on dark wet busy single carriageways the road is clearly lit all the way to the end of the beam pattern and well off to either side, inspiring more confidence in poor conditions and reducing fatigue.
Rather sadly I've bought 3 sets as christmas presents...
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Anyone missing the Halfords BOGOF offer might like to look here:
www.powerbulbs.co.uk/
The motorbike club I'm a member of negotiated a discount with them, and the club has something like 400 happy customers.
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The Halfords offer seems to going to be around for a little while.
Had a look at your Powerbulbs link - two Philips equivalents of the Halfords offer are £15.70 plus, no doubt, delivery charge. Cost me £12.99 at Halfords with the BOGOF offer.
Good value as basic Bosch equivalent is £11.99 per bulb.
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Should have mentioned that the lad who MOT'd my Bora revelaed he was an ex-VAG garage technician; learned some useful tips about things to look out or keep an eye on for my Bora whilst he was testing it.
He couldn't come up with a reason why both bulbs had gone though and had never come across it before.
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Even better, H4 Xenon bulbs at £11.99 per pair and including delivery. All other fittings available:
www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/h4_bulbs.htm
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