change brake light bulb

the passenger side brake light bulb was just burned out, (at least I just noticed that).
is there an easy way that I can change it myself?
any thread here to be helpful?
thanks,

Brake light bulb

jqian said:

the passenger side brake light bulb was just burned out, (at least I just noticed that).
is there an easy way that I can change it myself?
any thread here to be helpful?
thanks,

Click to expand...

From inside of car locate small panel behind light- velco strip holds it closed. Open panel>squeeze clips that hold light bulb assembly> remove bulb & replace with correct bulb.

2004STARWARSTDI said:

From inside of car locate small panel behind light- velco strip holds it closed. Open panel>squeeze clips that hold light bulb assembly> remove bulb & replace with correct bulb.

Click to expand...

I heard that it is horribly hard to change any tail light bulbs on a wagon, is that true?
sedan is ok.

jqian said:

I heard that it is horribly hard to change any tail light bulbs on a wagon, is that true?
sedan is ok.

Click to expand...

__. I've done it on both. The sedan is pretty easy. The wagon is horrendous. The hard part is getting to things. If you can get your hand in, you can make it work but it's clumsy and difficult. I've heard people say that they can remove the cluster by getting a long extension in there to remove the nuts holding the whole thing in (thus pulling the entire cluster out of the car) but I can't imagine how they do it.

See my post in the following thread for the tools it takes to get the nuts off and remove the taillight assembly from the outside. That's the only way I've been able to replace the bulbs.

The passenger side, by the way, is slightly easier than the driver side. Neither is easy. I always replace all the bulbs, once I've gone to the trouble of removing the taillight assembly.

Good luck -- you can do it, but be real careful not to drop the little nuts down into the wheel well.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=235125&highlight=taillight+wagon

Last week on my wife's 2002 Jetta TDI wagon the right brake light was out. Having assisted silverstick with the replacement of his rear lights I was prepared to remove the three nuts to access the entire assembly. But, low and behold I was able to pinch the retaining tabs and access the entire right side assembly quickly and easily. It was even easier than my sedan as the assembly needs to be coerced through the opening into the trunk.

The left side of her wagon is a pain especially since there's a CD changer there.

I have a 2003 wagon.
No problem getting the cluster out of either side. It takes some wiggling, but they both come out.

ACHTUNG TDI said:

Having assisted silverstick with the replacement of his rear lights I was prepared to remove the three nuts to access the entire assembly. But, low and behold I was able to pinch the retaining tabs and access the entire right side assembly quickly and easily.

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Lenny, that's great news. Another reason -- one of many -- I'm disappointed that I won't be at Jason's this weekend, to pick your brain (and fingers). That GTG is starting to sound like a national convention of gourmands and geeks.

The New Orleans po' boys can't measure up to the feast you'll be having, but they're doing their best. Hope to see you soon.

change brake light bulb - but not fog light

ACHTUNG TDI said:

Last week on my wife's 2002 Jetta TDI wagon the right brake light was out. Having assisted silverstick with the replacement of his rear lights I was prepared to remove the three nuts to access the entire assembly. But, low and behold I was able to pinch the retaining tabs and access the entire right side assembly quickly and easily. It was even easier than my sedan as the assembly needs to be coerced through the opening into the trunk.

The left side of her wagon is a pain especially since there's a CD changer there.

Click to expand...

The previous owner of my 2003 wagon apparently had something installed on the left side, as there's a hard styrofoam rack that looks difficult to remove, as I could only see two of the mounting screws. Fortunately, the blown bulb causing the glow plug blink was on the right side. Yet right below that socket was a blown rear fog light bulb, which is rather interesting, as it didn't come with the fog light option, so it never should have been used, esp. as it's not even possible to pull the light switch to turn the fog lights on.

does anyone know how to replace the third brake light (that sits on the hat shelf - at rear window) on a 2003 Jetta TDI

miltoncf said:

The previous owner of my 2003 wagon apparently had something installed on the left side, as there's a hard styrofoam rack that looks difficult to remove, as I could only see two of the mounting screws.

Click to expand...

The amp for the Monsoon radio is in front of that 'rack'
There's a bolt inside that I had a hill of a time getting out when I yanked the amp out.