<center><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff59/rvbrunner/4153_42.jpg"></center><p>I have an 1997 Audi A6 Avant Quattro and I am having a brake light problem.
Brake light trouble code on the display and the third light is completely out.
The rear fog light switch is lighting up every time I hit the brakes.
When I turn on the rear fog light and press on the brake pedal the third brake light works and the rear fog light now becomes an additional brake light.
Last time this happened I checked all bulbs and the condition corrected it's self, however this time it did not work.
I also ran a code scan and came up with this code "00526".
Does any one have any advice on what could be wrong?

Look up in the left and right hinge areas with the hatch open and you'll see rubber boots. These contain the hatch wiring.

On the left side is the wiring for the 3rd brake light.

Undo the boot from where it fits into the hatch and slide it down the wiring bundle to discover all the broken and cracked wiring.

2 options:
1) Slide on a piece of heat shrink, solder them back together, slide the heat shrink over the repair and shrink it with a match or heat gun, etc. Any wires that are just cracked in the jacketing; cut them in half, and do this repair.

2) If you have a good crimp tool that puts a dimple in what you crimp, rather than just smashes it, you can make your repairs with some nice quality red butt splice connectors.

When done, if you discover that any of the 3rd brake light bulbs aren't working, replace them with the proper ones from the dealer, otherwise the bulb check warning will come on as it senses the wrong resistance.

This is a common problem with all the Avants, dating back to the 5000's in the 80's.

Thanks for the information. I will take a look at it tonight.

There's a lot to be said for the 15" rims with narrow tires at least in the snow, ice and slush mixtures of the winter. I had fairly wide 16" snows last winter and my car started to hydroplane on some icy slush when highway conditions abruptly changed (they stopped plowing) and the guy in the next lane with a 20 year old econobox with narrow tires seemed to be doing just fine. ~ John Buchtenkirch

<center><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff59/rvbrunner/AudiWagonSilver.jpg"></center><p>Is this your wagon?
I like the way the 95 looks better than my 97.

That is a great looking car and a great picture.

my A6Q and 235/45-17 Falken ZE-512's (now ZE-912). Obviously narrower well treaded tires will cut through the snow easier than wider, but the diameter has nothing to do with it. I have to think 16 or 17" rims with a good all season or even snow tire at say 225 and quattro would do just fine unless of course you live in the "frozen tundra".

If you look in the FAQ's at the "Buyer's Guide" I wrote, that is the laundry list of everything I did to the car in the first year of ownership.

That photo is a fake. In the real photo, we are sitting on the shoulder of the road, having just towed a broken down Ford F150 out of the roadway and up onto the shoulder. The Park Ranger (Yosemite) showed up a day-late-and-a-dollar-short to see where the accident was that was blocking the highway.

Here we are hooking up:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/57225/towing_a_ford_small.jpg">

And the original photo:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/57225/ford_on_side_of_road_with_park_ranger_small.jpg">

The car came with them and sized up to 205/60-15's instead of the 195/60's. Replaced them this summer with a brand new set, same tire, same size.

Skiing with the car last season was like driving on dry pavement, even when everyone else was all cabled or chained up. I'd never driven a quattro before, let alone in it's element. It was amazing! Especially having done the same trip in the past in our 1990 4x4 Suburban. Whole 'nuther ball game in a quattro!!

The smaller the tire's contact patch the more weight there is on every square inch of contact. I live on top of a hill with a train station below me. The old timers told me about someone they called an old timer would drive his model T with skinny tires right up that hill when everyone with newer cars was getting stuck in the snow. I'm not going to lie to you and say I saw it but they seemed sincere and I think there's something to it. Anyway after my wild ride last winter i'm going to run 15" rims with narrow snows. ~ John Buchtenkirch

than the slight gain from a few mm less tire width. with quattro and all-seasons I could run that Model-T off the mountain ;)

Pete, you are missing the point. I never said that a model T Ford could beat your Audi in Winter conditions. It was just giving an example of a narrow tire car doing better in the winter than a similarly equipped (both are non-posi R.W.D.) wider tire car. I have personally seen where single rear wheel tow trucks did fine in the winter and the same truck with duallies was a total pig in the snow. My near mishap last winter where I came very close to taking out a roadside sign on four 7" wide Blizzaks while a econobox with probably 4" wide tires went down the road without problem has only strengthened my beliefs --- narrower tires will absolutely do better in SOME winter conditions. If your hydroplaning on a broken ice &amp; slush mix Quattro may not help, even that requires some hook up to the road. YOU ARE RIGHT, 15" has nothing to do with it, it's all in the size of the tire's contact patch but it's hard if not impossible to even get narrow tires for 17" rims. I only mentioned 15" because Todd/austinado16 mentioned maybe changing his rims and I know being a avid skier he does a lot of winter driving and he already has the same 15" rims on his wagon that came on mine. ~ John Buchtenkirch

While I've got my eye out for a different wheel, it's not that important to me because I like the stock wheels alot. Plus, having just reshod in a fresh set of Goodyear Assurance Triple Treads, I'm not making any changes any time soon. These tires are crazy excellent in heavy rain, and in snow/ice.

I've got a extra set of identical wheels, and it would be fun to have snows on them, but where we live, it's a 3hr drive on the freeway/highway before we ever even see snow on the shoulders, let alone the road. So, it'd be a waste of snows as we'd just burn them up on the 6hrs round trip spent on dry pavement at 70mph+.

Todd, Even though their not the easiest to clean (corners) I like the 1995 wheels myself and plan to mount narrower snows on them for this winter. I never really thought about it, you have somewhat unique conditions where you have to deal with 2 completely different seasons of weather in 1 season. Taking that into consideration your tire choice makes $ense to me. I hope you and your family are doing OK with the fires ? ~ John Buchtenkirch

I thought we were talking about C4 quattros. My bad :)

<center><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff59/rvbrunner/P1010845.jpg"></center><p>You where right I found about 8 broken wires near the left side hinge.

I got it together today and used some water proof connectors . Every things seems to be working fine.

Thanks for your help.