Marker light out on one side

Hi,
All the marker lights (front, side, rear) on one side of my '98 jetta don't come on. Turn signals work front and back, but when the head lights are on the tail light, side marker, and front marker aren't on.

Would one burnt bulb cause this? The only buld I haven't changed is the side - how do you get to that bulb ( yellow marker on the side )?

Thanks,

Tom de

All the lights on each side are on one fuse. It is possible that fuse is blown, or that all the lights have simply burnt out. The fuse is easy to check though. They are labeled by the fusebox.

-Jason

I hit mine with a shovel while unburying the car this morning and it turned back on!

I checked the fuse, it looked good. Maybe I'll just replace it for good measure. I've replaced all but the side marker light - How do you get to it? I started to pry on it, but it didn't feel right.

The shovel technique sounds more and more viable .

Thanks,

Tom de

Press the side marker in, then it will slide and pop out. It's spring loaded.

-Jason

On my Golf, I pushed from the rear of the lens using a plastic knife so as not to scratch the paint. The spring lever is on the front of the light fixture.

got to the side marker, thanks. Now I gotta get a new light ...

tom de

Ok, I still have a problem. First of all, it was a fuse - #8 not #7. Details, details. But the fuse keeps blowing. Now I've done two things recently ( from Dec. ). Installed an after market radio and an aftermarket heatseat ( kit ).

The seat was easy to disconnect, but it still blew the fuse. So, could the aftermarket radio cause this? I'll disconnect it when I have more fuses and more time. But why that side, why not anything else ( i.e. dash/instrument lights, etc.)?

Thanks,

Tom de

tdeboeser said:

...So, could the aftermarket radio cause this?

Click to expand...

Yes, it could cause this. With factory radios there is a wire that supplies the radio with variable +12V for the dimmer. Most aftermarket radios do not have a dimmer control built into them so that wire is often not connected. If you used an aftermarket wiring harness the wire is usually orange or orange/white stripe (once again, this is the color coding for the aftermarket harness).

If, however, you just cut the factory harness and spliced into it, you'll have to find out which wire is the "dimmer" wire by doing some trouble shooting with a volt meter.

Oh and whatever you do, don't just put in a bigger fuse and think that you've solved it. A blowing fuse is a "red flag" that you've got +12V shorting out somewhere....that's the reason the fuses are there.


Good luck!

Thanks. I remember the wire harness kit came with a lot of bold type about dimmer and wiring.

But a quick test of removing the radio and wiring harness, gives me the same result - a blown #8 fuse ( after turning the lights on ). The fuse blows hard ( sorry ), with the wire inside it burnt and often twisted/mangled like it was trying to get out of the fuse housing.

Back in dec I replaced the turn signal bulb. I'm pretty sure it was the right one ( turn signals work ), but could the wrong bulb cause my problem?

Thanks for all the suggestions,

Tom de

Bump... Any other places I should look for shorts/problems?

Thanks,

Tom de

ARG!

Now my electrical woes are worse. If I'm thinking right here, I think I've blown a relay, my door locks and my sun roof both do not work.
The door locks don't engage, but the alarm does.

And my marker lights are still out...

Thanks for any thoughts on this...

Tom de

Wild guess here, but you may have a bad ground connection.
The one's underneath the battery tray are prone to corrosion.

Solved in the Details....(aka I'm a dummy)

Ok I've found and fixed the problem. First of all let me say, I'm a dummy. And I have to pay attention to the details. Also, thanks for the tip about the wiring under the battery. It was very dirty there and needed a cleaning. I got the grounds nice and clean.

Last week I thought I should try and get the correct bulbs for a VW, thinking I had the wrong ones. The "auto stores" never listed a bulb number for a '98 jetta, but there was a listing for golfs, so I figured it was close enough. So last weekend I searched for VW bulbs and found the following...

From Autohause Arizona

<snip>
not recommended to mix nickel base with brass base due to higher efficiency (lower wattage) of nickel base bulbs.

</snip>

What I didn't do is carefully check the rear bulb. In Nov. of last year I replaced the left turn single bulb with an nickel based bulb. Last week I checked for the brass bulb, but didn't find a brass bulb.
Yesterday I had made up my mind that the problem was with a ground. I found in the trunk that the CD changer and tail light module was grounded in the trunk. I removed the changer, then I removed the ground from the tail light module. The marker lights ( side and front ) worked! So now I figure the problem is in the tail light module. Inspecting the module, I couldn't find a break or damage that would cause a short.

Then I notice the markings on the bulb in the tail light module, the bulb is orginal, and while not a brown brass color, it is tinted more than a new bulb...

ARRRGGG!!!

Well... everything is good again...

Thanks for the tips,

Tom De

Solved in the Details....(aka I'm a dummy)

Ok I've found and fixed the problem. First of all let me say, I'm a dummy. And I have to pay attention to the details. Also, thanks for the tip about the wiring under the battery. It was very dirty there and needed a cleaning. I got the grounds nice and clean.

Last week I thought I should try and get the correct bulbs for a VW, thinking I had the wrong ones. The "auto stores" never listed a bulb number for a '98 jetta, but there was a listing for golfs, so I figured it was close enough. So last weekend I searched for VW bulbs and found the following...

From Autohause Arizona

<snip>
not recommended to mix nickel base with brass base due to higher efficiency (lower wattage) of nickel base bulbs.

</snip>

What I didn't do is carefully check the rear bulb. In Nov. of last year I replaced the left turn single bulb with an nickel based bulb. Last week I checked for the brass bulb, but didn't find a brass bulb.
Yesterday I had made up my mind that the problem was with a ground. I found in the trunk that the CD changer and tail light module was grounded in the trunk. I removed the changer, then I removed the ground from the tail light module. The marker lights ( side and front ) worked! So now I figure the problem is in the tail light module. Inspecting the module, I couldn't find a break or damage that would cause a short.

Then I noticed the markings on the bulb in the tail light module, the bulb is orginal, and while not a brown brass color, it is tinted more than a new bulb...

ARRRGGG!!!

Well... everything is good again...

Thanks for the tips,

Tom De

Good grief... sorry about the double post...

Tom de