Well I never took notice to it when i recently bought the car but the reverse lights dont light up. I popped off the license plate cover and the bulbs are good. Tell me where to look next????? Is it possibly a plug on the trans? Something near the shifter???

Thanks for the help

 

There should be a switch on the trans somewhere may be bad.

 

ok, I had this
put the alarm on, then stand at the back of the car and cancel your alarm with the key fob.
backup lights come on to aid in finding your car. that's normal
turn key on, put in reverse, and go look. backup lights off? not normal.
what I had to do, is go to chevy, and buy a backup lights switch.
go to auto parts store, and buy a 10 amp fuse.
jack up the car high ehough so you can crawl under the car in the middle in front of the rear wheels.
on the side of the transaxle, the backup lights switch is screwed into the side of the trans.
unscrew the old one, and screw in the new one. it has thread sealer on the threads of the new switch to stop leaks.
first pop off the connector, screw old out, new in. screw it in until it hits bottom.
put connector back on and drop the car down.
open the right door, pick up the passenger floor mat.
se the 2 flippers where the passenger's feet go on the angled floor board?
un do the flippers, and take the floor board off.
in the center, theres a **** on a black box. unscrew it, and take the cover off the black box. it might be sort of helt in there with some resistance, but it pops off.
theres a fuse number 21 that is 10 amp that is blown. replace it, and look at your back up lights with the trans in reverse, engine off, but key on. They should work now.
Also, look at your rear view mirror inside the car on the windshield, if you have the auto dimming mirror, push the center button that has like an 0 on it, and the green light should come on and go off.
The backup light shorts out, and pops the fuse, and those 2 items are on that fuse.

 

Or, you could check the fuse and if it's ok, disconnect the plug on the back up switch and short the two pins (on the wiring connector side, not the tranny switch) with a paper clip. Turn on key and see if they now work. If they do, the switch is bad. If not, it's in the wiring or fuse circuit somewhere. Assuming you're talking about 6spd? Not sure how the back up light switch is mounted on A4, maybe on shifter?

 

yes the car is a 6speed

 

Check both the fuse and the tranny switch. The switch is located on the passenger side of the transmission towards the top and screws right out.

I had a failed switch and the common cause is that the switch fails inside the tranny and shorts against the tranny case causing the fuse to blow as a secondary issue. The approach lights feature uses a separate circuit so that's why they still light up when you unlock the car with that feature enabled.

The switch is about ~$10 and easily unscrews so it's an easy do it yourself job if you can get under the car. Backing up on Rhino Ramps is good enough.

 

www.rockauto.com

Standard Motor Products, part# LS205 $9.70 plus shipping.

 

Looks like you got the answer. I've had the same switch go twice in the last year on my son's Camaro. Its an AC Delco part. It caused a short both times and kept blowing the fuse. Once you find it, it's a 10 minute job.

 

Back up switch location on passenger side of manual tranny.

 

and my mirror auto dimming function returned as well