09 TDI Taillight/Tailgate switch malfunction

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Apr 20, 2022 | 08:27 AM

LALaPine

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09 TDI Taillight/Tailgate switch malfunction

hello. First off I'm a newbie to automotive forums but have trolled for info in BMW and Audi sites and have found the best solutions here. Thank you. Now my Q7 is giving me fits on the driver's side tail/brake/turn assembly. Has anyone a solution? Some say a ground, others the switch, and some replace the entire unit. It is/was intermittent now daily. Help?

Apr 21, 2022 | 01:18 PM

'10Q7TDI_Prestige'

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From: USA - NM

Details Matter

Quote:

Originally Posted by LALaPine

Please be much more specific as to the nature of your issue, and around the specifics on your car to help us help you. The first thing you need to do is verify what trouble codes are active on the car. To do this requires you own or have direct access to a VAG-compatible scantool. If you plan to keep & DIY this car yourself, pony up for the Ross-Tech VCDS cable setup. If you don't know what DIY stands for, get the cheap OBD-Eleven starter kit, which uses a smartphone app, and just allows you to read/erase trouble codes and little else, and don't buy the annual cost upgrades they will push at you.

You can experience problems with the hatch mounted tail lights if you have a gate/sensor problem. It has two sets of rear lights; in the gate for hatch-closed use, and then the duplicate set mounted into the bumper, which activates anytime the gate is not fully closed (a sensor mounted next to the gate latch triggers the switch between the two sets of tail lights). That is why you need to scan the car with appropriate VAG-compatible tool, as that would throw a trouble code if sensor is bad/failing, etc. You can chase your tail for days/weeks on this car, and throw $$ at new parts too, but until you know what the car has stored in memory to tell you, you will usually be barking up the wrong tree.