Offside Rear fog lamp not working (1.3.2b)

Mar 05, 2011 11 Replies

What exactly is covered by (1.3.2b)? I'm getting nervous.



Car is Saab 9000.


  1. When I depress the rear fog light switch after switching on headlamps, the rear fog light comes on clear and bright and red of course.


  1. The light on the switch itself doesn't stay on, this part is not working.

  2. The illumination of the rear fog light is nevertheless clearly displayed on the illuminated section of the fascia, the one with the speedo and all that. You can clearly see the orange icon is alight when the rear fog light switch is on.

I'm baffled of this failure.


I don't know, but why do you think there would be two indications ? Surely one is enough !

johannes gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

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for Rejection -2. A mandatory rear fog lampb. inoperative, excessively damaged, deteriorated or obscured so that it is not visible from a reasonable distance

So it won't fail under 1.3.2b

...but...

So no problem there. The switch illumination is merely illumination of the switch. The tell-tale is the light in the dash.

The tester's a f****it, and either didn't have the lights on, or didn't have the ignition on. Both of which are required to be on for the test...

Method of Inspection:

  1. With dipped head lamps and the ignition switched on, check:

Because there are! I just went out and checked. There is tell-tale "Note: Some ?tell-tales? may be in the form of a coloured tag on a switch."

I.e. the guide acknowledges that some cars may not have tell-tale on the switch itself, but just on the fascia. My car has both, but the tell-tale on the switch is not working. The one on the fascia IS working. Seems harsh failure.

do you have a working fog light on the offside of the vehicle? If you do and there is a telltale on the dash to say so then it sounds like all the bases are covered.

From the thread title the offside fog light is not working . Having a nearside one only does not count.

It is brighter than the rear brake lights, which they didn't fail.

Yes and yes.

Yes, there is only one offside rear fog. The symmetric nearside rear light is the white reversing light.

Obviously, I wont take the car to the second inspection if I know that it could fail. I have fixed all the issues apart from the Offside Rear fog lamp issue, which I am trying to get to then bottom of. Thanks to everybody here. I think that I will point this out first thing to the tester; if he still wants to fail it because of this issue, then there is no point in submitting the car. I have no time for the appeal, as I need to use the car, so I will probably take it to another MOT station.

does the lamp have the right bulb in?

I just went out and checked it. Bulb is 21W, exactly as it says in owners manual. Red plastic cover is clean; there is no obstruction of the light.

perhaps it had a temporary non working issue when it was tested? I often take in cars where either the hazards or the fogs do not work, simply because they are not used in between tests! a few stabs of the switch, or a thump of the fog light often gets them going again.

Never had any the slightest problem with the rear fogs, bulb glass is clean and fresh. No oxidation around the assembly. It is really a mystery. My money is on the tell-tale missing on the switch, although tell-tale still OK on dash. The 1.3.2b is rather general "it is in good working order". so it could be almost anything connected with rear fog light, i.e. tell-tale on switch by method of elimination. I will (probably) find out monday.

I'm an mot tester & that should not be a failure ! you have a working fog light to the rear of the vehicle on the offside with a working tell tale, kick his bloody arse when you go back, as he clearly dosnt know what he's doing.

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