Reversing lights and extra-bright rear fog lights.
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:00 pmAs I do a fair amount of continental driving, I wanted bilateral extra-bright rear fog lights.
My supplier (unnamed as very helpful - he had to replace the sat/nav set-up as it had burned out) but the chap he used to fit the reversing sensors was a sloppy worker - the sensors worked but the leads had not been dressed at all) agreed to set this up, but when I collected the Steppy (RF4, 2002) I found that they had connected a new dash switch (which needed mounting properly) to the O/S reversing light and changed its function to extra-bright rear fog light - they put in a white bulb painted red - not very effective!
I found on ebay some red LED 21w equivalent capless bulbs to use for the extra-brights, and a pair of white LED rear lights - 21W equivalent (expensive at 0.99p each - free postage!)
Today I fitted these - the white ones have a 20mm long 10mm diameter threaded shank with a nut, so they were mounted in the rear moulding 2" below the rear cluster. and the wire just threaded upwards to the back of the reversing lamp. The thread was a good fit in the 10mm hole I drilled, screwing in easily and bedded in clear silicone sealer prior to threading the nut.
On the O/S I left the new extra-bright wiring in place and connected a length of 5A wire to it, threading this through the loom grommet, across the Steppy under the rear lip. back out through the loom grommet on the N/S and replaced the reversing lamp connection with the link.
I connected the red wire from the LED to the green/black reversing light wire and the return to a black wire in the loom on each side.
Naturally I put the red LEDs in wrong way round, so just had to reverse their position!
Now have very bright reversing lights and moderately bright red fog lights on each side.
Next job - fit a frequency changer in the aerial lead.
My supplier (unnamed as very helpful - he had to replace the sat/nav set-up as it had burned out) but the chap he used to fit the reversing sensors was a sloppy worker - the sensors worked but the leads had not been dressed at all) agreed to set this up, but when I collected the Steppy (RF4, 2002) I found that they had connected a new dash switch (which needed mounting properly) to the O/S reversing light and changed its function to extra-bright rear fog light - they put in a white bulb painted red - not very effective!
I found on ebay some red LED 21w equivalent capless bulbs to use for the extra-brights, and a pair of white LED rear lights - 21W equivalent (expensive at 0.99p each - free postage!)
Today I fitted these - the white ones have a 20mm long 10mm diameter threaded shank with a nut, so they were mounted in the rear moulding 2" below the rear cluster. and the wire just threaded upwards to the back of the reversing lamp. The thread was a good fit in the 10mm hole I drilled, screwing in easily and bedded in clear silicone sealer prior to threading the nut.
On the O/S I left the new extra-bright wiring in place and connected a length of 5A wire to it, threading this through the loom grommet, across the Steppy under the rear lip. back out through the loom grommet on the N/S and replaced the reversing lamp connection with the link.
I connected the red wire from the LED to the green/black reversing light wire and the return to a black wire in the loom on each side.
Naturally I put the red LEDs in wrong way round, so just had to reverse their position!
Now have very bright reversing lights and moderately bright red fog lights on each side.
Next job - fit a frequency changer in the aerial lead.
