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Warning: Much rambling before any conclusions are drawn, let alone questions asked.


So, I had the brake light warning on the dash of my B5 S4, and I went and got a new bulb from the usually excellent local dealership.

My son operated all the controls but I still was not quite sure what was what, but sorted it straight away when I took the light cluster out of the other side (near side which was working OK).

More confusion when my new bulb would not fit, although moving the one from the other side worked fine. Turns out they gave me the wrong bulb which has the retaining pins offset instead of opposite. Ferk knows what that fits. My Halfords bulb kit had the right one though.

Anyways, all sorted. Kids are good at pressing and switching things, so much so that migrane was setting in before the job was finished

I then noticed that the nearside fog lamp bulb was missing (I'm expert on what goes where now, ask anytime ), so I assumed some cheeky sod had used it elsewhere and not replaced it. I put one in but the unit would not go back in because the hole the bulb goes through is blanked off.

Anyone know why the UK cars can only have an offside rear fog operational ?

Audi are too tight to fit 2 bulbs. i cut the hole out in mine and now have 2 working fog lamps for a bit of added piece of mind

The law is that you only need an offside bulb, and as Dave says above Audi (and to be fair, nearly every other manufacturer) only fits the one in order to save 25p per car.

Also (apparently) if you have two fog lamps (though legal) it can sometimes help people behind you run into your rear cos they don't see the brake lights coming on, despite the centre brake light. You know what these blind pillocks are like.

I think quite a few people cut the hole in order to put in two bulbs.

Paul

On my first B6 S4 (2003) I was able to add a nearside rear fog light just by breaking out the piece of plastic blocking the hole.

But on my second B6 S4 (2004) there wasn't a bulb holder or a wire, so I had to add both of those as well as breaking out the bit of plastic.

I'm pleased to see that Audi have seen sense, and my B7 RS4 (2006) has 2 rear fog lights as standard!

I'm pleased to see that Audi have seen sense, and my B7 RS4 (2006) has 2 rear fog lights as standard

It always did strike me as a silly idea. I can understand not putting a bulb in - so that they save 25p per car. But this does also mean that they needed two sets of moulds for the light clusters...

- one for RHD cars with the left hand fog light blanked out

and

- one for LHD cars with the right hand fog light blanked out.

Obviously some bean counter calculated that teh costs of the moulds was less than the 25p per car saved over the production run.

Paul

That's the bit I could not understand. They clearly put some effort into not allowing a nearside bulb to be fitted, leading me to believe there was a good reason not to have one? The brake light issue makes sense, but less so now all cars have central brake lights.

I don't expect the cost of parts to be an issue, the suppliers are well managed, as is the production line and they do these things by the 10's of thousands.

derdle wrote:You know what these blind pillocks are like.

Maybe the blind pillock was blinded by the pillock driving around with his fog lights unnecessarily on, which in my experience, happens far too often and gets on my goat.

DavidT wrote:has the retaining pins offset instead of opposite.

That is so that when fitted to the holder, the connections are correct so that tail light works when tail lights are operated and brake light works when brake lights are operated.

Check your car David and ensure that when your tail lights are turned on, the tail light is actually on, not the brake light.

I see loads of cars driving about with one very bright tail light because they have put the buld in backwards.