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Rear Number Plate Lights Not Working

JP6

Active Member
Aug 18, 2012
190
13
West Sussex
My car has the light bulb warning come up on the dash and says something about rear reg lights not working when I start the engine. They don't come on with the rest of the lights like they used to, but when I unlock the car they come on fine (leaving home/coming home lights) for a few seconds and then go off. Both bulbs work fine and they have done since I put them in a few months ago (LEDs, canbus friendly too)

Plugged Vagcom cable in earlier and it brought up an error about the lights which I reset but it's still the same.

Any ideas?
 

Nath.

The Gentlemans Express
Jan 1, 2006
8,620
16
EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE
Canbus friendly,,,,,,,obviously not any more. The resistors in the canbus ones get hot and eventually burn out. Put the original bulbs back in and see if that sorts it out.

If your car is a facelift (2009 on) it will be very picky about leds being fitted to the reg plate. This is because the 2 reg plate bulbs are in parallel so the resistors in the canbus leds are halved in value causing the resistance to be on the cusp of triggering the fault light.
 

X cupra

Active Member
Nov 4, 2012
170
0
Oxford
Iv recently bought some rear led number plate lights for my 2010 cupra,they are the actual bulb holders and not individual bulbs and are apparentley canbus friendly,well we shall see...this canbus malarky does my nut in,my old saab had this system and it spat out any kind of led upgrade...so annoying
 

JP6

Active Member
Aug 18, 2012
190
13
West Sussex
It's a pre FL. It was the LEDs from partsulike that loads of people have used with success, seems a bit strange for them to stop working so quickly. Is there away to disable the bulb warning with Vagcom?
 

Nath.

The Gentlemans Express
Jan 1, 2006
8,620
16
EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE
It's a pre FL. It was the LEDs from partsulike that loads of people have used with success, seems a bit strange for them to stop working so quickly. Is there away to disable the bulb warning with Vagcom?

If it's a pre facelift then yes. Go to central electronics and look for bulb cold diagnostics, then disable cold diagnostics for the reg plate bulbs.
 

JP6

Active Member
Aug 18, 2012
190
13
West Sussex
Disabled that today, still does the same which is odd. Didn't get round to trying the standard bulbs due to the weather.
 

jamiegwillym

Full Member
Aug 10, 2008
105
0
S Wales
Finally! I have EXACTLY thie same issue.. thought I was the only one!

I have the same LEDs from partsulike. worked fine for a few months, now they come on for about 10 seconds when I unlock my car and then stay off!

Has to be a CAN-BUS issue. I would say I'd complain to partsulike, but I'd probably be pissing in the wind as it would only be a temporary fix the even if they sent new LEDs out.
 

window60

Active Member
Feb 19, 2008
197
0
Worcester
Mine has done the same this morning, I have the same festoon bulbs from Parts U Like as well. I have dropped them an email to see if they can replace them.

Rich
 

Jarre

Active Member
Dec 9, 2011
5,365
11
Stockton-On-Tees
If you all complain then they know there's a big issue and they will probably look to source different LEDs because their current stock isn't 'error free'.
 

jamiegwillym

Full Member
Aug 10, 2008
105
0
S Wales
I've just pinged them an e-mail too :) I think if everyone jumps on the bandwagon we might stand a better chance of getting some Revised bulbs sent out.
 
Last edited:

window60

Active Member
Feb 19, 2008
197
0
Worcester
I've got a response back and they will send out replacements once I have sent the faulty ones back. I can only assume that these will fail again.

Rich
 

Jarre

Active Member
Dec 9, 2011
5,365
11
Stockton-On-Tees
I'd link them to the thread. I imagine a lot of firms think people make up led failures just to get more since there's so many uses for them.
 

window60

Active Member
Feb 19, 2008
197
0
Worcester
Update

My number plate LED's are working now; but I get a canbus (bulb out error) when the lights are off, when the lights are on the error disappears and the LED's work as normal.

Rich
 
Last edited:

jamiegwillym

Full Member
Aug 10, 2008
105
0
S Wales
PartsULike's Response

Just got a reply off them...

Thanks for the email and the link to the forum, I have taken this up withour supplier and we are looking into it and trying to source a solution foryou. I will be in touch soon.

Looks like we are getting somewhere :)
 

LeonCR

Active Member
Oct 22, 2009
2,389
2
I am still waiting on them getting back to me about bulbs for the facelift Leon
 

Andy 58 leon

Guest
I have got a 58plate Leon stylance (1.9tdi),not done any mods to the number plate bulbs but out of the blue yesterday the light came on dash to say they weren't working.went out in car this morning cleared itself,checked out bulbs an wiring connections all ok...drove the car this evening came back on so pulled over and switched lights on and off 3/4times cleared it,went half a mile down road same thing again!any advice would be sound!!

Thanks Andy