Electrical & Audio Guides
High Level Brake Light
This is becoming fairly standard these days, with many manufactures fitting their cars with a high level brake light from the factory. The main advantage is that it attracts the attention of the driver behind when you are stopping and if you get an LED powered one instead of bulbs then it lights instantly, which in terms of human response time give the person behind more time to slow down. Another advantage is that some insurance companies have started to give reductions for this kind of thing, as it has been proved to reduce the changes of a rear end collision.
There are many alternatives available, and in a variety of prices. Which to buy is mainly down to personal preference, but it is best to steer clear of the bulb powered ones, they have limited advantage and the bulbs tend to go, leaving you with the difficult task of finding a replacement. LED are far more reliable and a lot brighter. There is also a wider range of LED powered lights available. The main differences being length or number of LED's.
The next task after deciding which light to get is to fit it. Not too difficult depending on what kind of a job you want to do! It is easy just to stick the light to the window with the included pads and then wrap the cable round the boot strut, but it looks untidy and there is a great chance you will snag the cable on something!
Decide where you want the light (usually in the middle at the top of the rear window) and fix it there. Most lights come with adhesive pads, but if you get a long light then the chances are it will keep falling off the window. This is not a problem, just get some screws, a drill and some spacers (or a lot of washers!). Hold the light up where you want it and mark on the top of the boot lid (metal above the window, inside!) where you will need to drill holes to put securing screws in. Then drill the holes and screw it on - self taping screws are ideal unless you want to thread the holes. If you want to run the cable neatly then drill a third hole in the boot lid next to where the cable comes out the light and put a rubber grommet in it. Then feed the cable through this hole and by whatever means get it to come out of one of the cable holes in either end of the boot lid. There is one on the drivers side where the heated screen and wiper wires go through, or if you remove the rubber plugs on the other side you can get another rubber cable guide/protector thing from the scrap yard and run the cable through this side instead. If you don't want to drill holes in the boot lid then you can simply tuck the cable in round the boot seal.
Connecting the light up to the existing brake lights is the easiest bit, all it needs is a ground connection and power to light it. The ground wire is usually marked with a white stripe but some companies differ from this convention so it is always best to check the instructions first. The ground wire goes to the car body anywhere, the easiest place is one of the existing earth point inside the lower boot. The other wire (+ve feed) goes to the wire that feeds power to the existing brake light. This can be located on the back of the rear light cluster. It goes to the top bulb fixing and is coloured .......? . Connect to this wire by whatever means (ScotchLok self stripping splices are the easiest way).
Check the light works carefully, get in the car and with the ignition switch on tap the break pedal quickly to see if it lights. If it works first time then great! If it doesn't then swap the wires over, and if it still doesn't then take/send it back and get another one!
