Rear light mystery

[the_mini_mole]

Hi there, i'm having a bit of an interesting problem with my rear lights on my 2000 Polo GTi- One side isn't working, but will come on sometimes, which is odd enough, but last night my friends who was following my back from Newquay said that the light that wasn't working swapped over, so instead of being the passenger side its now the drivers side, but this isn't the whole time- I sometimes have both working... Has anyone else had this problem, or have any ideas?

[alexperkins]

Is this all the bulbs in that cluster on that side, or just a single sidelight/brake/other bulb?

[Tim_GTi]

I've had similar problems before, I gave them a whack from the outside and they worked fine after. Then shortly my offside rear light and reverse light failed at the same time. Replaced them both and have never had any problems since!