2012-04-07 – The left brake bulb burnt in Dec 11, and now the right side went out. I think the electrical system on the A8 was much better. Anyhow, since I documented this page, it took me less than 10 minutes to replace the bulb with just a Philip screw driver.
Again, remove the side light assembly cover, slide the assembly to the right slowly and firmly after the screw taken out, the whole assembly will slide out.
Push while turning the bulb counter clockwise to remove and clockwise to install.
Slide the the assembly back from right to left, make sure the right side hook is in place, align the screw sockets together and push the screw and tighten it, don’t need to over tighten the screw, it’s not going anywhere, too hard will strip the plastic threads. Put back the plastic cover, it’s very hard to get all the plastic snap-ons in place, good luck on that, don’t break the flimsy hooks.
So, the brake light warning light is on and one of the 3 brake lights must be out. It was the driver side one. It’s not as simple as all the other cars, just open the cover and twist the socket, we need to do more than that. We need a good size Philips (+) screw driver or a socket wrench. We used the screw driver. The whole back light assembly is held to the car by a snap-on socket and a screw to the body. We need to remove the back light assembly to get to all the bulb sockets.
Make sure the screw is totally out, pull it out clear the other end (not taken out completely), we need to slide the light assembly side way (perpendicular direction to the side body outward) slowly and firmly, not to hard, we may ding or scratch the car when it came out. Look at the snap-on socket to have an idea how to slide it out of the retaining pin.
Here is the socket and retainer pin on the body and the bulb replacement number 7225 at Autozone (it’s different from signal bulbs).
Twist off the bulb socket, remove the bulb and replace it a new one, put it back. There is a black plastic cover, which needs to be put on before sliding back the light assembly back to the retainer pin and the screw assembly. It’s a good idea to check the new bulb, make sure it works before putting everything back together.
When the side is flush with the light assembly, it’s almost the same alignment for the screw automatically, go in the back and start screwing it in.
$4.99 for 2 bulbs (1 is spare now) and 15 minutes.
7 Comments
Great process for the bulb replacement. Do you happen to know the part number or where I can get the retaining pin? I was checking a bulb on the driver’s side and the tip of the pin fell out as I was pulling the assembly out.