Where has my brake light gone?

[Eileen]

I have returned home today from a few days away and by brake light is missing, are people stealing these now as well as the spare wheels?

 

[SimonB]

Sorry to hear this Eileen. Do you mean the brake light that is high up on the rear door, or one of the lower ones, left or right?
If it is the high up one, there is a known fault with them and they can fall out, apparently. Our dealer told me about this and I have read of a few on here.
Once replaced, under warranty hopefully, it doesn't happen again.

 

[Tactical]

Do you mean the high level brake light above the rear window?

They have a tendency to fall out. It's a known problem.

If you are under still warranty then your VW garage will fix it free of charge.

I suggest you cover up the gap with insulating tape (or similar); if rain gets in it can run down inside and leave water marks on the blind.

 

[owen_h]

Yes its a well known problem. The red cover is not available on its own either, you have to get the whole assembly. Approx £40 I think.
Couple of weeks ago Breeze reported mine had popped out on one side and they pushed it back but 2 days later it was loose on one side again. Spent last Sunday morning getting it out , doing a stronger repair and refitting. Once out I could see why they go so often. The red cover slides over the main assembly and clicks into place with 8 (i think) small plastic lugs. The whole thing is then fixed to the tailgate with 3 Torx screws fitting into sprung loaded plugs on the LED assembly. The springs are there to pull the whole thing against the metal of the tailgate and compress a seal. Issue is you have 3 strong screws/springs in effect trying to pull the red cover off the rest of the assembly and the little lugs are not up to the job. If/When the red cover is lost the springs pull the rest of the unit deeper into the tailgate making it all but impossible to refit the cover (assuming it isn't on a motorway somewhere ). Difficult to explain in words but clear when you have the light in front of you.
To fix mine i took the whole unit out and glued (epoxy) the red cover to the main assembly. Then when putting it back into the tailgate used a silicon glue/sealant (Loctite 595 as recommended by someone else on here) so that the fixing screws didn't need to be quite as tight to get a good seal.
Sounds simple and the above wasn't that difficult to do. What was a right pig was getting the tailgate interior trim panel off to gain access to the Torx screws. Its held on by 6 very strong metal trim clips. Thought I was going to end up breaking the plastic (but didn't).
I'm no longer in warranty hence doing it myself. But unless they have changed the design since mine was made I can see this will be a common issue for many as the vans age and the plastic becomes more brittle.