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I've got a 2004 Passat Estate and am trying to replace a brake light bulb. I used to own a Golf and the plastic bracket that held all of the light bulbs was held in with 4 clips and was easy to remove by squeezing them together. Now on my Passat there seems to be no way of getting this light bulb bracket out. There are a couple of clips that look like the old Golf ones but they don't seem to have any effect. Anyone got any ideas?
Hi Nobby,
i have a similar problem, again it took me a while to get the light cluster out on the rear nearside of the car. i have a 2002 estate and i too tried to replce the brake light bulb. The cluster itself will come out using the 2 clips you mentioned, i does need a little bit of teasing but you will get there in the end.
HOWEVER, i've managed to replace the 2 middle bulbs for the brake light but upon replaceing the unit have now lost power to ALL the lights on the rear nearside!
I've no idea if this is due to a blown fuse or something more serious?!?! So i would proceed with caution, i'm actualy debating taking the car to VW to sort it unless anyone on the forum can help?
cheers
Feegs
It's the cold weather making the plastic stiff so it doesn't yield. You are meant to bend the clips inwards, and wiggle the bulb holder and it should withdraw. You may as well replace all the bulbs while out. Also, check carefully the pin alignment, I think there is a difference between 4 and 5w bulbs or something, any way the ones I had initially were wrong.
Hi Snapdragon,
Thanks for that advice. I'm just wondering what you meant by the pin allignment of the bulbs? The replacement's i've bought are from Halfords and as you said, are 5w, replacing the original Osram 4w bulbs.
Do you know if this misallignment would throw out the rest of the bulbs on that same cluster? If they were on some sort of relay system i guess it could?
Cheers
Chris
I don't know, it was a long time since I did the bulbs, but I remember one in there already being wrong, and the ones I had as spares in a drawer were like the wrong one, so I had to go to the shops and get more. I think the pins on the sides were in the wrong place (like higher up the side by a mm or two) or some such problem. The wrong one already in there was hard to get out. Sorry I can't be more precise.
Hi Feegs
I don't know whether your 02 is the same as my 04 Passat but since my last post I've found out that that the indicator bulb is not attached to the main plate where all the other bulbs are. You need to twist the grey lug to remove the indicator bulb first. The main light plate will then come out much easier.
To replace, fit the light plate first then the indicator bulb. Be careful as there are a couple of electrical contacts on the indicator bulb attachment which need to click into the main bulb plate as you twist.
Who knows why this is such a complicated set up but once you know how it works it's much simpler tp replace bulbs.
By the way, I got my rear brake light from VW in Bury. I was amazed that it was only £1.50! No box or anything but what a bargain.
hi nobby & snapdragon,
thank you both for the info. Nobby, i didnt actually have a Haynes manual at hand when i performed the bulb replacement....I fear that i maybe let anger get the better of me and maybe forced the indicator bulb stalk unecessarily! I'll remove the whole lot as you advised, take another look at the bulb connections as snapdragon suggested and see what happens.....if still nowt then i guess it's VW dealership here i come ;o)
cheers guys
feegs
(by the way Haynes manual is now in the post, to prevent any future ****ups!!!)