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Thread: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light

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  1. Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
    #1
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    Hi,

    New here, but couldn't find an answer in th search facility.

    I have a 2005 B5 1.9 TDI Highline with 15K miles on it and the rear centre brake ight has gone very dim. I have checked all the other brake bulbs and they are correct and can find no wiring fault. The remaining brake lights (and all other lights) work perfectly.

    Any ideas would be much appreciated.

    Thanks
     
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  2. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
    #2
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    The most likely thing is high resistance. Usually caused by bad earth but can be a faulty joint or bulb. If you have a multimeter, disconnect the light and test resistance at as many points as possible.
     
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  3. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
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    Thanks, I'll try that. The rear centre brake light is a long strip of LED lights. There are 3 resistors that seem ok and one diode which also seems to e fine. All te LEDs light but dimly. There is 12v at the connector and I have cleaned and checked the terminals for oxide contamination. I think it may either be low current although I cannot chase the wiring back in case it is a poor earth at the other end or also maybe a faulty single LED with high resistance. I was hoping this may have been a common problem that others had experienced.

    I'll let you know how I get on.

    Cheers
     
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  4. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
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    You sound like you know what your are doing. You could calculate a suitable voltage and apply that across the strip of LED's. If they light bright, you know the fault is elsewhere. You see the same problem with LED Christmas lights. Good luck.
     
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  5. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
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    I have the same problem on my B5.5, have you managed to find what the problem was?
     
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  6. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
    #6
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    Apparently this is quite a common issue according to my local *******. Anyway it was cured by replacing the LED brake light strip completely.

    They wanted Ł131.00 to do the job as they said it would take over an hour to do. I bought the part for Ł43.00 and fitted i myself in under 5 minutes !!!

    Its to do with one or some of the LED segments going internally high resistance.

    Hope this helps?
     
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  7. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
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    Thanks for the reply, it helps a lot. I'll remove it tomorrow and check out the leds at work.
    Ł131 and over an hour to do ....LOL only if they include a 1 hour lunchbreak in the time.

    Cheers
     
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  8. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
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    For future reference for anyone else that has this problem........

    I traced out the simple circuit diagram of the LED strip, and the unit is layed out as 4 parrallel circuits each with 4 LEDs in series with a resistor.
    Seeing that this fault effected all LEDs then the fault had to be the diode from the 12v supply which is the only common componant in the circuit. I replaced it and the unit works perfectly now. The diode is a 1N4004 (a very common and cheap diode).
    Any other fault with any other componant on the board would usually only effect 1 of the sets of 4 LEDs.
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  9. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
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    Digging up this old thread as my centre brake light stopped working.
    I bought a replacement which when fitted works correctly.
    With the defective one out I bought some 1N4004 diodes (Thanks @996r), de-soldered the suspect diode and soldered new one and bingo, it's working!
    I've re-installed repaired original and plan to sell the replacement.

    For any others doing this job, I bought a set of trim removal tools including the Plastic wedge (T10039/1 equivalent) which made removal very easy.
    Details here;
    Removing and installing additional brake light bulbM25
     
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  10. Re: Very Dim Rear Centre Brake Light 
    #10
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    I found mine was all corroded inside, Octavia 1U estate.
    Anthropogenic climate change, the biggest con inflicted on mankind since religion...

    Slava Ukraini
    !


     
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