What I don,t like about VW

[Sunny43.5]

I thought I would start this one after a recent experience , what I am asking members is to tell us what they dislike or like about their VW . It can be design service or whatever .Okay I will start about what pee's me off , okay today a brake light goes out a no brainer but wait VW seem to be one of those companies that is hell bent on keeping their VW owners either poor or loyal . I had a blown brake light bulb as stated seems that in a Transporter and I am presuming other VW's as well they have designed the bulbs so you cannot buy an off the shelf one from elsewhere . The locating pins on VW bulbs are offset from side to side ie not opposite each other like everyone else's . Why do they do that ? before 2004 the pins were opposite and could be purchased anywhere almost , after 2004 no way . the bulb internally is the same as off the shelf so why offset the pins . Next one why do they fit those multi sided sort of torx bolts into a part that would most likely need to be replaced from time to time . In our vans they use those bolts to hold the rollers onto the side sliding door , last time I changed ours I had to resort to using an air chisel to crack the bolt , these were then replaced with high tensile "normal hex bolts "why can't Vw do the same ? . There are other things but will leave that for later . By the way I love our vans but sometimes the engineering seems stupid .

[Sunny43.5]

I am replying to my own comment as I just today realised I have made an error , what I thought was the brake light tail light was something else . Now off to see if the aftermarkets have this one . If they do I will edit the original to remove reference to the bulbs and add another problem .!

[woofy]

Yeah those weird offset pin bulbs are just odd, I think it is done as an arrangement with various parts makers so they get exclusive supplier status.

[willsy01]

Brake light bulbs with offset pins are normal and quite readily available from any parts place. I assume you mean like these?

[Sunny43.5]

Well yes and no the offset is not from the bottom to the glass but side to side they are not on the exact opposite side as you would expect , if you look from the bottom one pin is dead centre of the outer diameter but the other is not equal in position on the other side . Here you can see the offset , now this where I made a mistake it was a brake bulb that was blown but the bulb I removed was the taillight only . I will stand by the first comment seems a bit dumb .
.

[feenix74]

Also known as BAY12D 12V 21/5W Brake and tail light. Available aftermarket:

SCA Automotive Globe - Stop/Tail, 12V, 21/5W, 2 Pack - Supercheap Auto Australia


How do I know this? Because my 2011 Caddy uses them for the daytime driving lights . . . correction, chews them up and spits them out every 6 months because the filaments in the bulb are not designed to be constantly on as daytime driving lights, overheat and burn out.

So I get myself some aftermarket LED versions, then find out the hard way that they are not CANBUS compatible. Luckily I have just found some on ebay that are CANBUS compatible, so will be giving them a go.

On the subject of light bulbs, the design of the side-light bulbs in the Golf Mk5 means that without specialist tools or go-go gadget fingers it is impossible to replace one.

[dinot81]

Hi

In regards to the constant burnt out light bulbs which seems a major issue on mk5 Golf (my dad has one and numerous brake light bulb changes). What I have noticed that the bracket where bulb socket sits is not tight enough and bulb has room to move, not to mention the vibrations it cops from driving. When you dismantle the tail light assembly, before removing the bulb, move it to sides, if there is movement, it is likely to burn out faster. Indicator bulbs are tight, no movement at at. In 8 years he had a Golf, only the brakelights keep burning out. I came across this 2 weeks age when I was changing another one. So what you need to do is once the bulb is removed, inside there are 2 brackets that hold the bulb. Use a small screwdriver and lightly bend them inwards to create tighter space. Once you put a new one in, you should notice that there is lot less movement.

Hope makes sense, apologies for typos, writing from my phone.

Regards

Dino

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk

[jets]

Hi
In 8 years he had a Golf, only the brakelights keep burning out.

I blew a couple when my Mk5 was fairly new. A friend tipped me off to not have your foot on the brake pedal [use handbrake]
while someone else closes/slams the boot lid shut. Haven't had to replace another globe since, for probably 8 years.

[woofy]

There are a myriad of those offset pin lights. Our Skoda has about 12 different ones in each socket, all different. Was really hard to fnd them as only Osram made them. I ended up shipping a bulk pack over from Germany and splitting it with a mate who has a Skoda.

[Guest001]

Old Fords, Holdens and Toyotas use offset pins for a very good reason.

Its so that in dual filament lens you put them in the right way. EG in brake lights one is a 6w circuit for taillights and a 21w circuit for the brake lights.

Some idiots obviously dont know that and jam them in the wrong way as witnessed by very bright tail lights and very dim driver