Norway Magne

Problem is solved,this is due to faulty ground and can be solved almost cost free. Cut of brown cable before connection stecker to each back light and crimp on a insulated quick connector on the cable coming from power source, drill a small hole trough the bulb holder and lead a cable through. Then solder it to the metal framing on all bulbs ground area, this is common on all bulbs. You should use a brown cable with the same square or bigger to avoid confusion in the future. Crimp on a insulated connector and connect it with the brown cable witch was cutted and connected with the crimped connection before.
Now there should be no more problems. Originally the ground is not sufficient and there is developing welding pearls on the connector so the problem will come again, i investigated this and found that the original ones are damaged beyone repair. Send your car to a work shop and they will charge you several houndreds of dollars only this will happen again and again.
Happy to share this info even thoug it took me 20 hours of investigation to
solve.
<<<<<<<please silicone the hole you drilled in the bulb holder to avoid moisture.

jane2368

My first time to post in this board but I've been living with this problem for a long time. My light issue is on the right side. No doubt the heat plays a role in the timing of when the error occurs. Leaving for work around 5:45 AM I can go for about 15 min before the alarm goes off (what an annoying sound that is). In the afternoon, after sitting in the parking lot under the sun all day the alarm goes off within seconds of starting the engine. I've replaced the bulb holder, cleaned all the connections (several times) and nothing has helped. So I finally broke down and orderded the whole tail light assembly from "www.genuinevwaudiparts.com". The price was a little more than advertised on the site but at this point I did not care ... I just wanted the problem to go away. Total cost including shipping was $158.16. Be sure to give your VIN number when ordering. The part was in perfect shape with all bulbs included. All I had to do was remove the old and plug in the new one and I was done. I drove around for about 2 hours yesterday in the Houston/Sugar Land area (100 deg) and it never went off. It's like being in a new car all over again. The problem has to be in the LED's ... so my suggestion would be to bite the bullet and buy the entire assembly and save yourself the heartache and time. I swear if my alarm does go off again I'll let you know ... right after I drive it off the nearest bridge.

schalliol

Jane, I feel your pain indeed. I am going the same route and look forward to what I hope to be resolution. I don't believe in my case that the bulb holder has anything to do with my issue, and it is in the LED bank. It's too bad that there doesn't seem to be any way of getting into where the LEDs are located to check all the internal connections.

seckler17

Just bit the bullet and ordered a new right rear assmbly, hopefully it will fix my issue too. $171 and some change toatl for dilevery from genuineaudiparts.com. I will do the same thing as jane2368 and post if this does not fix the problem....I'll try and refrain from driving my car off a bridge though, but this has been a huge pain in the A$$ !!

seckler17

Sorry I meant the Left rear assembly, thats why mine was more expensive than jane2368.

C.R.Brown

I just wanted to chime in with my tail light issues. My right side has had intermittant 'alarms' that seemed to go away with repalcement of all the bulbs. The way they are wired if one goes out I believe the whole assembly is lost as they seem to be wired in series.

Recently the left side went out and after replacing the bulbs looked a little closer and had the same issue as schalliol (http://www.schalliol.com/forums/a6/B.../photo%204.jpg). Some serious glue reattached the contact point and the problem was solved.

In fact this week had the unfortunate experience of having the MIL light, both brake lights being out warnings, brake replacement warning lamp, service (80k) warning lamp and PLEASE REFUEL. Sigh.

Norway Magne

Have now tested the modified ground cable. No more problems seen all ok. The only common to each light cluster is the ground, if ground is bad all the bulbs will be in trouble.
I remember this from my old Volvo 142 that when ground conction failed all kind of strange things happend with the rear light fks blinking during braking and so on.
So my stronge advice is to modify ground and pass ground directly in to the common bulb area and not via the plug.
I made a simple check by borrowing ground directly from the battery -pole and connected it with common ground. Immedeatly the lamps was glowing brighter. I recoment to try this since this is a no cost test. Even if you have lights diodes in your rear light the issue should be the same.

seckler17

That is an interesting find Norway. However I don't think I have the same issue as I never have any problems with the standard bulbs lighting up, only the LED section. The common bulb area lights up fine every time (knock on wood). I think my issue as well as schalliol and jane2368 is with the LED section of the tail light.

kemer1

Had the same exact issue with the LEDs intermittently messing up and not working. It took replacing the entire tail light assembly to fix mine...but it worked and it's been fine ever since then.

larryincmh

After wrestling with all the intermittent bulb out issues for a year - and then replacing all the bulbs - cleaning the contacts - installing load levelers - all to no avail - I finally broke down and replaced the whole driver side tail light assembly.

Problem is now fixed as it has been three weeks now without any bulb out issues in very high heat and humidity. My issues were always heat related. The dealer had not wanted to address this issue even though I was under warranty because I had installed a trailer light kit - they were feeling that was the problem.

The tail light fixed the issue - as stated - so the dealer ran this through under warranty instead of me fixing it. Good luck to everyone who has been having this issue.