krazzz

The license plate light on my car work intermittently. When I first purchased the car I noticed that they were not working properly. I replaced the factory bulbs (one was found to be burned out) with LEDs. The problem persists. Sometimes they work great, other times they flash on and off and sometimes they don't come on at all. It is not throwing any codes. My first thought it the ground. Do you know where it is located? My second question is what is the best place to tap into a wire for the tail lights? I bought a license plate frame that has built in LEDs and want to install that if I can't get the factory ones working. Law enforcement in this town is very aggressive and they will look for any reason to pull you over. Non-functioning license plate lights are a common reason to get pulled over here. What wire (color code) should I look for and where is it located for me to get a + wire that is keyed on? Thanks!

MP4.2+6.0

Dealt with that on many an old Audi. Typically was bulb to socket contact, or on old ones with the ancient VW open fuses, the fuse connection.

Here I would look not just at the bulbs but also the sockets. Make sure they are clean and uncorroded, and re check bulb. After that, yes maybe a ground but also look at the wiring where it comes into the trunk lid around the hinge. Had that once on an older one where with years of use the wiring insulation got frayed. Haven't heard of it on D3's, but any time you have wiring that is subject to movement around hinge points, it's a suspect when you see erratic output.

Also, be sure the LED's really work there without resistors. On the Audi trailer wiring you cannot have all LED's or it gets whacky and lights are barely visible and flash rapidly. BTDT. Caused me to back out the LED tails on my boat trailer to give it enough load. Also made it impossible to test with a std. voltmeter. Frankly as long as my (incandescent) license plate bulbs work to factory spec brightness, I'm not interested in lighting it up yet more for the world of LEO's or others. Easy test is just reinstall std. incandescent bulbs after being sure socket is clean.

Junius

Also, where did you purchase your LEDs from? Mine are from ecstuning.com and they work great after 6 months. Make sure the contact and socket are clean and connected properly.

krazzz

I think mine were from ECS as well. I don't think it has anything to do with the bulbs because the incandescent were doing to the same thing. It did have some corrosion and I cleaned it off. Maybe I will pull them and try cleaning it again and use some dielectric grease.

MainelyA8

My one good bulb (prior to replacing them with the LED units from ECS tuning) was doing the same thing. I ended up sanding the contacts on it because there was a thin layer of corrosion, and the problem went away.