I'm stumped... Number Plate Lights

[tunzy]

Ok, I don't know how to put this properly without making an idiot out of myself...

Lights for your rear number plates, now I just found out the one on the left is not working whilst the one on the right is.

So I thought the light bulb must have gone out... SIMPLE (nb: faulty light signal NOT displayed on dash, but thought it might not include something as trivial as this)...

Went and purchased a new bulb, unscrewed the holder to replace it... looked at the old bulb and realised it has NOT blown... strange... to be sure, i even unscrewed the right one and put the old bulb in and it works! Tried the right holder in the left side, again doesnt work...

Now I've got no idea what the problem is... is it the actual housing and wiring that is broken inside? Anyone experienced this problem before?

It will look weird for a while, but planning on leaving it with just one side working until my next major service in about 6 months time...

if you have ideas for a quick simple fix? please let me know it's friday night and my brain is already dead from work lol

Thanks!

[Blitzen]

Leave it for warranty...If you screw something up while playing around with the wiring, and short something out, you can be screwed. Wiring can be very sensitive in cars like this, and small things can lead to big dramas. If you don't know what you are doing now, and want to have a play, it could end up in tears. Leave it for VW to sort out.

[tunzy]

Annoying is the warranty on the car ran out 4 months ago, and the original seller (i bought it 2nd hand) didn't purchase an extension....

yeh, hence in a bit of a pickle atm...

[Maverick]

The lights out does work for the rear license plates lights and should have activated. The system only requires triggers once power draw drops below 6 watts and you have 2 x 5 watt globes, it's possible that the other bulb is drawing just over 6 watts or the holder has a problem.

Has it always been faulty? Perhaps you've only just noticed???

As Blitzen says best to leave it for the dealer, the wiring runs across behind the bumper out of the way between the two holders so it's unlikely that it's been damaged, most likely the holder is physically damaged in some way so check that out to see if one of the contacts is bent.

[tunzy]

thanks for the suggestions... will take a look at it...

it's something i just realised, to be honest my gf pointed it out to me haha last time i paid attention to it was before the big wet period we got in Sydney about a month back (so hopefully it hasnt shorted because water got in)

i've switched the left and right holders around (the contacts on those seem fine) so I'm thinking maybe something in the housing has been bent/malfunctioned...

yeh, might have to leave it for the dealers to look at *sigh*

thanks again!

[Maverick]

Check out inside the housings, one works so you can use that as a reference for the other one. There are contacts inside the housing that are exposed so if you have a multimeter or know someone who has one it could be an easy check to see if there is power there. As I mentioned earlier there is not much that can go wrong, the power loops from one houysing to the other and you can't even see the cable from under the car except where it goes into the body so it's very unlikely that anything has happened to it.

[chrisgti]

definitely do a tongue test.. it wont hurt, just like a 9 volt battery.