a6 avant tailgate brake light

[mplews67]

Have an intermittent fault on the tailgate brake light, can anyone tell me how to gain access to it, tried prising the trim off but am scared of doing any damage.

[Peter D]

You need to tell us the year. 2006 was differerent to 2005. Post your email address and I'll send you the data. put a couple of spaces in you email address to avoid Phishing. Are you sure the cable has not fractures where it passes through the hinge flexi boot. Regards Peter

[mplews67]

Its an early 2006 on a 55 plate

[mplews67]

mplew s67 @hotmail.co.uk

thanks in advance

[fmc51]

You need to tell us the year. 2006 was differerent to 2005. Post your email address and I'll send you the data. put a couple of spaces in you email address to avoid Phishing. Are you sure the cable has not fractures where it passes through the hinge flexi boot. Regards Peter
I also have an intermittent fault on my '05 Avant A6 centre brake light. I had an electrician check it out, and he reckons there was no power to the light. Lo and behold it came on again later. I have all trim off at present, where should I be looking for the (seems to me) conection fault?

Regards
Fergus
fmcnamee @ holfeld-plastics .com

[makowa]

Hi,

Same happend to me. Have A4 Avant 05 plate. Can't figure out how to take centre brake light off without braking it ;) i'm pretty sure its just corrosion as i've managed to disconnect wire and mesure it and was 12V straight away with no fuss and after i've connected cable back (wasn't easy) light started working straight away but warning light came back next day... much appreciate any help

Thanks in advance

Chris

mak owa @ hotmail . co . uk

[BMrider]

Audi A6 12/05, Have an intermittent fault on the tailgate brake light, can anyone tell me how to gain access to it, martini 961 @ hotmail . com thanks for any help

[rogmartin]

Hi,

I have a 55 Avant A6. Removing the centre brake light (LED) took me 30 seconds, after the first 2 hours of figuring out how it was held in place. You need to remove the internal boot trim lower (most of the inner boot trime) and then the upper to expose the area in which the lighting unit locates. It is removed from the outside of the vehicle by sliding the different coloured plastic assemblies horizontally to the lighting unit from the inside of the boot void. This releases the copper clips (which fall into the boot void and are easily retrieved if your careful). the unit can then be removed from the outside.

Mine had a fault (intermittent) which i thought id repaired by re crimping the spades, resetting the ignition to check the function. It worked for a week and then the intermittent fault occured!!!

I did have the usual disaster of pipe popping off on the rear wash wipe and filling the boot area with water, after the AUDI recall repair-pathetic attempt had been done, i repaired it using real hose and fittings. The issue here is that the light unit may be corroded or damaged. Any ideas of replacement costs or alternative would be useful.

Also, i have a similar intermittne tproblem with the fuel gauge, im not sure if this is inter related but may contribute to a bigger problem. Help!!!!

Thanks
Roger

[nealeb]

Just had a go at fixing the "intermittent centre brake light" problem on my 56 plate A6 Avant. Maybe one journey in three the warning light would come on. Had the moral support of a neighbour who has recently gone through something similar with his A4 convertible.

In case it helps anyone, removing the lower trim involves removing 6 Torx screws - 4 along the lower edge and 2under the warning triangle flap. There are 6 spring clips around the lining which clip into the boot lid which came out fairly easily. I found that locating them by shining a torch in helped in knowing where to tug. The really tricky bits are at the top outer corners of the lower trim ("top" when the tailgate is shut, that is) where I found that I needed to use a fair bit of force to disengage them before they came free. Again, peering in with a torch helped identify these small moulding clips. Don't forget to lever out the white lights in the bottom of the tailgate or you will rip the wires off them; just lever out with a screwdriver under the end nearest the centre of the car and you can then unplug and remove them. I found it helped to have an assistant to hold the tailgate at the right height, and to support the lining panel as it came free - it is quite heavy and you will be working at one side to free it when the whole weight drops...

The upper trim panel is held with two visible screws, two clips either side into the tailgate pillars (pull lining towards centre of tailgate) and I think 5 along the top edge but these will be obvious by this stage.

To release the actual brake light unit, as described in a previous post, I slid a black bar visible through holes in the tailgate sideways about 6 mm, at which point it dropped off. You can then manipulate the clips off and levering from below, push the light unit out. Unplug and it's all yours. Reassemble by refitting the clips (they have to go the right way round - there is some subtle shaping to them) and sliding on the black slide to hold them. You will have had to retrieve all four clips and the black slide from inside the tailgate. A torch and long piece of wire with a hook on the end was useful at this point... I bent the pins on the light unit slightly and gave it all a good squirt of contact cleaner before replugging and pushing in from the outside. In the words of the oracle - reassembly is the opposite of dismantling! I found that I had to put my hand in the gap and manipulate the spring clips on the lower panel to line up before giving it a good shove to engage. Don't forget to fish out the white light connectors as you reassemble so they don't get lost inside.

There is a rigid plastic sleeve that goes over the boot catch and also fits on to the lower lining panel. There is enough flex to ease this off the boot catch as you remove the panel but don't forget to refit it during assembly as you won't get it back on once the panel is back in place. Again, an assistant to hold the tailgate more-or-less horizontal during reassembly is very helpful.

And that's it. Having said which, my neighbour went through this a couple of times on his A4 which has a very similar LED light unit, and the third time opened up the light unit and soldered wires to the PCB which went to new connectors on to the wiring loom, to replace the original connectors which look more suited to a PC motherboard than the arduous environment of a car.

[Peter D]

You appear to have forgotten what you did with the light, did you fit a new one or repair the one you had. Regards Peter

[nealeb]

No, I did mention it but almost in passing! I bent the pins on the brake light unit very slightly in the hopes of making a better connection and gave the connector a good squirt of switch cleaner. I have a motorbike which also suffers from occasional electrical problems and I give the least-protected connectors a similar treatment from time to time which seems to keep the problems at bay. However, in the Audi brake light unit the connectors are silly little things; more than adequate for the current but I suspect that the springiness of the connectors is too little to give a "self-cleaning" action as you take them apart and refit. Next step, as per my neighbour and his A4 already mentioned, is to break into the light unit (looks like a set of plastic clips will give access) and fit new wires direct from PCB with new connectors to the wiring harness. We shall see...

In any case, I'm pretty sure that there is no problem with the light unit itself so no plan to replace it unless I'm proved otherwise.

[Peter D]

I read that as if you had bent the pins on one of the white light units not the brake light. Regards Peter

[nealeb]

Edited my posts to try to clarify. I'll never make a technical author, so no use me applying to Haynes, then:)

Hope it might help someone.

[chemirocha]

I have a 55 plate A6 Avant and my centre brake light just stopped working altogther - nothing intermittent about it! So I followed these excellent instructions to get access to it and yes, I did drop the lower trim - the top 4 clips all went at once, fortunately nothing broke. The hardest thing about this job was getting the brake light out after the black plastic bar was slid to the left and all the clips pushed off - no amount of levering it from inside would free it, so I used one of those curved ice scrapers to get under the top edge from the outside, and a thin metal blade at the bottom to prise it out where it was getting stuck beneath the glass. It looked a bit too easy to break the whole thing!

Once I'd got the unit out I cleaned the contacts etc but no luck, still doesn't work. I guess the whole unit has failed but I didn't think LEDs "blew" like bulbs did. The wiring looks fine, and there is some sort of voltage on it although it is hard to tell because I think the control unit doesn't apply volts once a fault has been registered. At least, when the ignition is first turned, the reading seems to jump up but then settles down to about 0.3V regardless of whether the brakes are applied or not.

Does anybody know if it could be anything else at fault? Replacement units (part number 4F9 945 097) are about £35 ex VAT so I think I'll just try it anyway now that I have the thing in pieces.

[nealeb]

I had someone helping to pull the light unit out from the outside while I was levering up from inside and it was fiddly but not difficult. My biggest problem was fishing out one of the clips afterwards.

If the fault is a solid one, though, it does sound more like a failed unit than the poor connection thing that seems most common. As you say, though, LEDs themselves should be pretty reliable; I would be sore tempted (if you've mentally written off the unit anyway) to try to open it to see if there are any obvious poor connections internally. You can't make it any worse!

[chemirocha]

"Can't make it any worse" - ha! You have no idea of my mechanical ineptitude. The main components of my toolbox are WD40 (for things that are supposed to move), duct tape (for things that aren't) and a very big hammer (for when the WD40 or duct tape don't work).

Anyway, the red plastic appears to be glued to the lower grey stuff. It can be prised off but not with ease and I wouldn't recommend it - I snapped mine in half. You're right though, I had already, mentally, consigned it to the scrap bin and had replaced it with a new, working (yay!) unit, so nothing lost.

Thanks for your informative post though - it would have cost me a lot more if I had left it to the Audi garage to fix.

[pxr5]

You have no idea of my mechanical ineptitude. The main components of my toolbox are WD40 (for things that are supposed to move), duct tape (for things that aren't) and a very big hammer (for when the WD40 or duct tape don't work).

That was funny and it sounds a bit like me lol.

[nealeb]

Thanks for your informative post though - it would have cost me a lot more if I had left it to the Audi garage to fix.

I only made the post to stop people attacking their tailgate trim with hammer to remove and duct tape to replace:) And WD40 is a devil of a job to remove once it's gone where it shouldn't!

[Scouse_VFR]

Just had a go at fixing the "intermittent centre brake light" problem on my 56 plate A6 Avant. Maybe one journey in three the warning light would come on. Had the moral support of a neighbour who has recently gone through something similar with his A4 convertible.

In case it helps anyone, removing the lower trim involves removing 6 Torx screws - 4 along the lower edge and 2under the warning triangle flap. There are 6 spring clips around the lining which clip into the boot lid which came out fairly easily. I found that locating them by shining a torch in helped in knowing where to tug. The really tricky bits are at the top outer corners of the lower trim ("top" when the tailgate is shut, that is) where I found that I needed to use a fair bit of force to disengage them before they came free. Again, peering in with a torch helped identify these small moulding clips. Don't forget to lever out the white lights in the bottom of the tailgate or you will rip the wires off them; just lever out with a screwdriver under the end nearest the centre of the car and you can then unplug and remove them. I found it helped to have an assistant to hold the tailgate at the right height, and to support the lining panel as it came free - it is quite heavy and you will be working at one side to free it when the whole weight drops...

The upper trim panel is held with two visible screws, two clips either side into the tailgate pillars (pull lining towards centre of tailgate) and I think 5 along the top edge but these will be obvious by this stage.

To release the actual brake light unit, as described in a previous post, I slid a black bar visible through holes in the tailgate sideways about 6 mm, at which point it dropped off. You can then manipulate the clips off and levering from below, push the light unit out. Unplug and it's all yours. Reassemble by refitting the clips (they have to go the right way round - there is some subtle shaping to them) and sliding on the black slide to hold them. You will have had to retrieve all four clips and the black slide from inside the tailgate. A torch and long piece of wire with a hook on the end was useful at this point... I bent the pins on the light unit slightly and gave it all a good squirt of contact cleaner before replugging and pushing in from the outside. In the words of the oracle - reassembly is the opposite of dismantling! I found that I had to put my hand in the gap and manipulate the spring clips on the lower panel to line up before giving it a good shove to engage. Don't forget to fish out the white light connectors as you reassemble so they don't get lost inside.

There is a rigid plastic sleeve that goes over the boot catch and also fits on to the lower lining panel. There is enough flex to ease this off the boot catch as you remove the panel but don't forget to refit it during assembly as you won't get it back on once the panel is back in place. Again, an assistant to hold the tailgate more-or-less horizontal during reassembly is very helpful.

And that's it. Having said which, my neighbour went through this a couple of times on his A4 which has a very similar LED light unit, and the third time opened up the light unit and soldered wires to the PCB which went to new connectors on to the wiring loom, to replace the original connectors which look more suited to a PC motherboard than the arduous environment of a car.

Thank you Sir, strange I should find you here!! How funny :D

Thanks for the advice, I'll be trying it out on mine soon, although I fear these instructions are actually for the previous incarnation of A6, mine is 08 but I think the boot is much the same.

Jon

[nealeb]

Would that be the VFR forum or the Pan forum?

As to the A6 model - I've seen talk of a "facelifted" version but I don't actually follow such things very closely. I think that they are both the same basic "platform" version - the C6 - but someone more knowledgeable will surely be along to correct me if not! I've actually updated my A6 recently to the latest model but I would be pretty sure that not much changed between my old 56-plate version and your 08-version.

Good luck - this seems to be one of those odd blind spots that manufacturers always deliver in an otherwise well-built car. One other such flaw is the way that the almost inaccessible gaps just under the rear corners of the bonnet fill with dead leaves that are almost impossible to remove completely but can block drain holes that lead to water entering the car. At least, I think that that's where people mean - I try to keep mine cleaned out!

[Scouse_VFR]

Would that be the VFR forum or the Pan forum?

As to the A6 model - I've seen talk of a "facelifted" version but I don't actually follow such things very closely. I think that they are both the same basic "platform" version - the C6 - but someone more knowledgeable will surely be along to correct me if not! I've actually updated my A6 recently to the latest model but I would be pretty sure that not much changed between my old 56-plate version and your 08-version.

Good luck - this seems to be one of those odd blind spots that manufacturers always deliver in an otherwise well-built car. One other such flaw is the way that the almost inaccessible gaps just under the rear corners of the bonnet fill with dead leaves that are almost impossible to remove completely but can block drain holes that lead to water entering the car. At least, I think that that's where people mean - I try to keep mine cleaned out!

That would be the VFR forum :beerchug:

Thanks for the pointers, as always very useful!

You are a mine of useful information my friend.

Jon

[boidy]

anyone know the part number for this bulb?

2008 s line avant.

thanks, seems to say bulb is out every time, ready for a new one i think.

[gupsterg]

I'm assuming your talking about the high level brake light unit?? as thread is about that...

If so part no is 4F9 945 097 approx. list price £44

The trim clips for main lower trim panel are 4A0 867 276, and for the top section 1J0 863 265...
I usually get bits like this as well... as I always break, bend or lose the blasted things... :Blush2:

[boidy]

centre brake light has now failed completely, does the whole trim have to be removed ? i've un clipped the top to expose the bulb and the housing with the clips, how do i get it out from here ?

[boidy]

quick update.... fitted my new brake light bulb, cost £50.00 from audi.problem solved. you don't have to remove all the trim it is possible to do this by just easing off the trim near the bulb. there are 5 clips that come out fairly easy, you can then wedge the trim with a couple of pairs of socks, this will give you enough room to work. there is a long piece of black plastic about the same length as the light itself if you use a flat screwdriver and slide it about 1" to your right this will then free the light and allow it to be removed from the outside. remove the light and just unclip.

[Bentleyblade]

I have had the 'high level brake light' problem of intermittent failure, as discussed in this thread, starting four to five weeks ago. As the MoT is is due soon on my 56 plate A6 Avant I searched on here and discovered nealeb's's description of getting access to the light unit.
I can confirm that it is as described, tricky but do-able if you take care.
The problem I found with mine was obvious corrosion of the contacts in the connector on the light unit. A good soaking with contact cleaner and slightly bending the pins to improve contact has solved the fault.

[nealeb]

Well done - seems like a long while ago that I wrote those notes! Sounds as if Boidy has found a more direct route into the tailgate by going in from the top rather than removing the whole tailgate lining which sounds like something worth exploring if anyone else has the same problem.

[Inkblot]

My 06 A6 Avant does the same on occasion although as my MOT isn't due until April I tend to take the simplistic approach - if I'm nearly at my destination I do nothing but if I have a way to go I pull over and do the old computer trick of turning if off and on again. It then works for the next 3-4 weeks (done it 3 times in the 9 weeks I've had the car) although I'll have to get it done before the MOT. I might try it myself but as I have somewhat ledd mechanical/electrical skills than a chimpanzee it will probably be something I'll get done by the independent that I use for servicing

[inuolaji baid]

am having similar problem but mine is a6 2001

[Guest 2]

Welcome to VWAF

You should start a new thread here - http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?327-Audi-A6-C5-Forum-1998-2004 as it's more relevant to your year of car.

[Quattro-Charlie]

Dredging up an old thread for my current issue. Before I order a new LED replacement light I'd like some help to clarify if it's the bulb or the connection.
There's no warning light on the dash but only a handful of the LEDs are working. The whole light isn't kaput so what do we think, connection or whole bulb (strip) replacement?
as always thanks for the info guys.

[niall campbell]

I think the whole strip

You could buy Local and ask the shop if you can try it out before you buy ?? Unless he has to order it in ..................... just clip the connection together

[Quattro-Charlie]

Funny coincidence that we both have A6's and Skoda Fabia's.... haha

Anyway, I thought that being leds that either the whole strip would go or not....which leads me to assume that it's the connection...hey I'm no electrician. Well I have led lights on my saki Ninja and tbh a few of them have died without the whole light dying.....so the A6 could need a whole bed led strip. I wonder how it passed the MOT as it was surely like it for the mot. Don't reckon I'd be good at being cheeky enough to try before I buy...and other folk got an opinion on if it's the connection or the whole led strip.
Cant stay long on this issue.....got bigger car related fixes to tackle...

[Lukenkarl]

Individual leds soldered on.

[cjackel492]

Dredging up an old thread for my current issue. Before I order a new LED replacement light I'd like some help to clarify if it's the bulb or the connection.
There's no warning light on the dash but only a handful of the LEDs are working. The whole light isn't kaput so what do we think, connection or whole bulb (strip) replacement?
as always thanks for the info guys.
Generally, if a few LED's still work, then it is more likely that some of the other LED's have failed or have dry joints.

If you can go over the joints with some solder and an iron, they might work again.

If you try that and it doesn't work, and you then decide to replace it, would you be interested in selling the faulty one? I'm after 1 to modify so not worried about LED's not working, :-)

Carl,

[Quattro-Charlie]

That's an idea.... I'll whip it out and have a go with some solder and a bit of sandpaper etc. If it still doesn't work afterwards then you can have it. I wouldn't want anything except for the postage perhaps unless your ever in London and I could hand it to you.

But I have to deal with my suspension bush problem first so I won't get onto the brake light just yet.

[cjackel492]

That's an idea.... I'll whip it out and have a go with some solder and a bit of sandpaper etc. If it still doesn't work afterwards then you can have it. I wouldn't want anything except for the postage perhaps unless your ever in London and I could hand it to you.

But I have to deal with my suspension bush problem first so I won't get onto the brake light just yet.


Not sure about the sand paper bit, lol.

Cool.

Yes, have to get the priority jobs done first.

Carl,