Third Brake light ... inexpensive renewal

[RayD]

Our third brake light has stopped working.

Do you have any tips on where to start.

Removed the two rubber grommets and can see the two horizontal rectangular black plastic slots.

Where is the power supply coming from?

Is it normal to have an unused three pin socket on the near side tail light?

Is there a fuse involved?

All the best for 2010

Ray

2001, One litre

[alexperkins]

Hey Ray hows it going?

Has it stopped working completely?

Its on fuse number 15, but thats for all the rear brake lights. It is spurred off the interior loom - it doesnt plug into the rear of the lights.

To remove it you have to remove the grommets, then carefully prise the retaining catches down and pull them towards you to release their clips.Then you need to carefully withdraw the light from the tailgate.

Its fiddly, so go carefully

[RayD]

Thanks Alex,

It has stopped working completely and no amount of fiddling with the parts of the wiring loom you can see makes any difference.

The side stop lights are working so that rules out the fuse if they are all on one.

I'd read the instructions earlier but it's not clear what is meant by "down." With the hatch fully open does down mean sliding the black plastic items toward the top of the door ... in other words "up" if it were possible to do it with the door closed ... or does it mean sliding them down the door.

Hope I'm not confusing matters too much.

Ray

[alexperkins]

Down towards the floor bud. It sounds as though the transformer in the light itself has died - get it out and get a multimeter on the points and go from there id say.

[RayD]

I'll have another look Alex,

Ray

[RayD]

Alex,

Finally got round to looking at this again …. thanks to your instructions I have the hang of disconnecting the clips.

When they are disconnected is it just a matter of easing the light out of the bodywork?

Do the clips come out with the light or stay where they are?

Ray

[alexperkins]

Aye - just get a flat head screwdriver and gently lever it out of the bootlid. The wiring is located on the rear and just unplugs - just be sure not to loose it in the bootlid!

[RayD]

Thanks again Alex,

For anyone else struggling in future …

Lift the tailgate

Remove the two rubber grommets behind the third brake light

This reveals two black plastic clips with a rectangular slot in each.

The clips can be detached one at a time.

Put a wide flat blade screwdriver horizontally in the slot and slide downwards, at the end of its stroke pull the clip towards you with the screwdriver blade and release the downward pressure at the same time, if the slot goes up further than it was before it is un-clipped.

Repeat for the other clip

Stick a double strip of masking tape above the light to protect the paint.

Use a wide scraper blade to ease the fitting out of the bodywork.

Pull the loop of cable out and disconnect the power lead by operating the small catch.

The markings on the light are …
Lichtscheibe .PMMA
Fresnellinse PC
Gehouse PC
6 NO.945.097
09.82.70.02
SJ3
Rosthaken PA 66 GF 2S

Mine has 12 volts going to the power lead and not working at all.

Do we know if there are any renewable parts available or does it call for a new fitting?

Does anyone have a spare?

Ray

[alexperkins]

Its not a repairable part - would just be a new unit. Any scrapyards nearby?

[RayD]

I'll start the search....

Ray

[RayD]

Replaced the original LEDs with a 250mm strip of 12v white LED's from Maplin ... £7.15

Part Number N87CZ

Ray

[red6n2]

got a pic ?

[alexperkins]

Interesting fix Ray credit to you for thinking outside the box

[RayD]

Keep in mind this was done out of desperation as opposed to an improvement.

The original one wasn’t working.

When adding pictures from Photobucket which of the 4 share options is best to use, and does the picture need to be a certain size in order for it to appear automatically on this page?

Edit: To answer my own question ... Upload the picture to Photobucket > click Share > Get Link Code > Copy address from "IMG for Bulletin Boards and Forums" > post that address onto the “Post Reply” box on the forum and the picture will automatically appear.







The LED shown in the blue box is a 50mm sample of the Maplins strip. It comes on a roll and can be cut and bought in any length.

It may be possible to get 300mm in rather than the 250mm I used.

Ray

[red6n2]

il put any money down that someone else does this lol... looks quite neat and tidy