UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

My Daughters high level brake light is now showing 2 bulbs out. I could buy a replacement unit off eBay and take a chance.

Is it usually just a bulb or dirty fitting connection?

Can I buy these bulbs easily and then replace the lot in one operation?

Not sure which bulbs they are but must say somewhere

Cheers
Andrew

I don't think that that car will become illegal for use on the car until most bulbs have failed, though if I were you, I'd still want to sort it.

I had complete failure of that high level brake light fitting on my wife's previous 2002 Polo, it was due to rainwater getting in and destroying the supply bus bar!
These bulbs are all small flangeless bulbs and just unplug as you might expect, but as you have discovered what type they are is not given in the handbooks and I'd reckon that a VW garage would fail off the complete unit out of ignorance.
I'll try to locate that old light fitting, no it will not have been dumped - yet!

Edit:- Okay, I've done my looking and there are 15 bulbs in total in there, each one a 2.3 watt capless type 284 bulb, and they are available from on line sellers. Now, one thing to consider, getting that light out is tricky and will cause you a lot of pain when trying to get the trim panel off - I seem to remember, and I'd advice that you either lubricate the seal between the hatch and that light or apply a small amount of silicone as that seal goes hard and after you have disturbed it, it might not seal very well which will mean that water gets in and rusts away the bus bars. The bulbs just press out, but I'd guess that you will need to wire that light up to 12 volts once you have removed it to identify which bulbs need replacing, good luck!