UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

I’ve got a bit of a weird issue. My rear right fog light (the one next to the indicator) isn’t working, whilst the rear left fog light works fine. I have replaced the bulb, but this hasn’t worked. I haven’t checked the fuses, but I can only find a reference to the rear fog lights being on the same fuse line, so the fuse wouldn’t be blown if one of them (the left one) still works.

I’ve noticed that the rear right fog lighting is a completely different bulb H21W whereas the rear left fog light is P21W… which I think is weird. The H21W bulb (on the right side - the broken side) has a weird plastic seat that the bulb sits in which itself is sitting in the bulb socket.

I’ve attached some photos. Does anyone have any idea of what’s going on here?

what do you mean, rear left fog light?

if you're RHD, assuming you're in australia, it should be:
left side (passenger side) is the reverse light
right side (driver side) is the rear fog light

unless you modified something, you'll only have one reverse light and one rear fog light

did you ever mess with the lights or changed the light clusters?

Oh what! I am in Australia. I didn’t know that was even a thing… so that’s why the bulbs are different. I haven’t changed anything inside the light clusters besides cleaning them and replacing the rear right fog light bulb, which I assumed was broken. I was testing if the lights worked in reverse mode so that’s maybe why the rear right fog light wasn’t lighting up (whereas the rear left reverse light did work - which makes sense because you say it is a reverse light). I’ll try and enable the fog lights tomorrow and see if I can get that rear right fog light to work.

On another note, why is the left the reverse light, and the right the fog light? Shouldn’t they have both of these reverse and fog lights on both sides? Because if I want to reverse shouldn’t I want both the left and right lights to shine. Maybe you can enlighten me

R826583 wrote: Thu Sep 21, 2023 11:26 am On another note, why is the left the reverse light, and the right the fog light? Shouldn’t they have both of these reverse and fog lights on both sides? Because if I want to reverse shouldn’t I want both the left and right lights to shine. Maybe you can enlighten me

It’s probably down to cost if there’s no legal requirement for there to be two rear fog lights and reversing lights. VW are able to save the cost of 1 fog light bulb and 1 reversing light bulb per car which will only amount to a few pence / cents, but when you consider the total number of 6r / 6c Polos built during the lifecycle of the car, the overall cost saving to VW will certainly be worthwhile.

VW do fit two reversing lights on the next generation (AW / BZ) Polo. I’m not sure how many rear fog lights the AW / BZ Polo has even though I own one - I very rarely drive in conditions where it’s necessary to switch the fog light(s) on.

The fog light only on the drivers side makes sense. From a mass production perspective it also makes sense to have a more-or-less symmetrical car.
So I guess that's the reason you're only getting one reverse light. Two would have been nicer though, I'll agree on that.

I think the current driver assistance devices for lights (A5 camera_Matrix headlights) have a 'slight preference' for two symmetrical lights instead of just one.

I see now. Thanks everyone

I can confirm both lights works! The left one in reverse and the right in fog light mode.