Ok, at the moment this is only available for the Jetta as it came standard with the LED lights on the rear. For some reason (cost cutting?) VW decided in their infinite wisdom not to use LED lights on the GTi. You can however purchase them after market. I do believe you can get OEM.
Please keep in mind the usual things, neither I nor Mk5GolfGTI.co.uk forum will not be held responsible should you damage anything or yourself doing this mod.
You will need the following:
1 x donut PCB ring with LED's on.
1 x spare passenger side inner tail light complete
2 x female connector housing 191 972 712
2 x repair wire set for above 000 979 129
2 x male connector housing 1J0 972 923
2 x repair wire set for above 000 979 133
1 x repair wire set S 000 979 150E
approx 10 metres of 1.5mm sq thin wall wire (I used brown and red to differentiate earth and live)
heat shrink butt connectors
Solder and soldering iron
Automotive cloth tape (for that factory fresh finish)
Side Cutters
Wire Stripper
Crimping tool
Heat gun or equivalent for heat shrink butt connectors
T20 Torx driver
Flat screw driver
Pizza Cutter
Bison Plastic adhesive (clear and waterproof) or eqivalent
Step 1:
Remove the rear cover on the boot lid. This is done by removing the 4 x T20 Torx screws on the back panel. Then pull the cover off gently from the top down, it should come away quite easily. Place to one side out of harms way.
Step 2:
Disconnect the harness on the boot lid and remove, makes life easier when you hooking up the other wires.
Step 3:
Remove the tail lights by removing the nuts holding them in place with a 10mm socket or spanner. Put them one side safely.
Step 4:
Take your inner tail lights inside and leave them to warm up for a few hours. One they have warmed up a little, so they are not too brittle, proceed to open the tail lights using your pizza cutter as per this video.
Step 5:
Once opened, you need to remove the centre section and drill the holes for the LED's. This is not difficult as they are already moulded in. Be very careful with your drill as you can easily mark the chrome effect. Be sure to wear gloves as it does mark easily. To remove the centre section turn the lights over and use a pliers to push the pins sticking up together and then down, there are 3 sets of these. Use a 5.5 or 6mm drill bit to drill the holes. Remember to discard the centre section from the drivers side with the red lens in and use the centre section from the passenger side tail light you purchased to make two reverse lights.
Step 6:
Once the holes have been drilled, take your dremel and remove the rear 'dome' of where the LED's will sit. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of this, but you do need to remove quite a bit of material. You will see what I mean when you have them out. If you do not do this, the lights will not sit in correctly. You will also need to drill a couple of holes next to each other for the wires to come through the back of the tail light assembly. You will see that the LED rings and the centre section can only go in one way.
Step 7:
Once you have done the above and placed the centre section back in the main moulding and ensured it is clipped back in place correctly, you can then re-assemble the lens portion back onto the main housing. It will fit only one way so do not mix the lenses up. Put a very little amount of glue on the mating surfaces, you don't want glue running into the lights. Then clip the lens back on and hold in place with some clamps for a period of time. I left them to sit for a few hours before handling them again. I then put a bead around the lens edge to make sure there was a good seal and no water could get in. I then left them overnight to make sure everything was dry and solid.
Step 8:
While the glue is setting, you can move onto the harness. First step is to make another connection for the second reverse light on the drivers side. Take one of the female connectors and one of the relevant repair wires. Cut the repair wire in half and insert the two terminals into the housing. Be sure to make a note of which is positive and negative. You can find which is which by looking at the original reverse light plug. You will then need to cut some wire and using the butt connectors crimp them to the ends of the respective repair wire ends. Then run them the length of the existing harness making sure you don't make them too long or too short. Strip back a section on each wire near the original reverse light plug and solder the new wires to them, keeping in mind the polarity. Tape these up using insulation tape and making sure that there is no chance of shorting. You are now done with wiring the new reverse light bulb.
Step 9:
This is where it get's a little trickier. You need to run a common earth from the original fog light plug on the drivers side to the passenger side by using the method above of stripping back and soldering only the ground wire. Do the same as above and ensure the wire running to the passenger side follows the original harness to the correct length. Take one of the female connectors and the respective repair wires and cut the repair wire in half again. Insert the repair wires into the female connectors, once again being mindful of polarity, which again can be copied from the original fog light connector on the drivers side. You will then need to use the butt connector to connect the earth side to the wire you just ran from the original fog light connector. Then take a long piece of wire, this needs to run to the panel by your feet and connect it to the repair wire coming from the positive side of the new connector using a butt connector again. then wrap up all the wires using the cloth tape for that OEM look.
Step 10:
Take your newly modified and glued tail lights and attach one of the male connectors with the relevant repair wires to the wires coming from the rings in the tail lights. Once again, be mindful of the polarity. Do this for both sides. Try to keep the wires as short as possible, but easy enough to work with.
Step 10:
Re-install the harness and the tail lights in the boot lid. Make sure to connect the plugs correctly and you should end up with this:
Step 11:
Remove the boot carpeting and put it to one side. Then remove the plastic protector piece on the back of the boot. This is done by removing the two plastic 'screws' holding it down and then pulling. It should come away easily with a good tug or three. Put this to one side. Now remove the four fasteners holding the side panels in place, two on the rear and two under the parcel shelf, you will see them easily. Do this to both sides. Then pull the side panels away gently.
Step 12:
Now you need to run the single wire from the new plug on the passenger side to the front of the car as per the original harness. This can be a handful as it's really tight in there. Once through the grommets and sheath, it should enter in the side of the boot behind where the outer tail light is. Once through, feed it along the back of the boot where the existing wiring is and over the drivers side rear wheel arch. You will need to remove the rear seat, the trims along the drivers side, the rear seat side section, and the trim where the light switch goes.
Step 13:
Once you have got to this point, you will need to remove the relay tray and turn if over. This is done by releasing the two clips either side, you should be able to feel them if you put your hands up one either side. Once you have done this, you should see 4 plugs on the bottom. You are looking for plug B as in the picture below. You want to remove this plug by releasing the purple clamp by pulling it to one side. Then activate the clip on the plug and pull it out. You then want to insert one end of the repair wire into pin 4. You can then put it all back together in reverse order. Before putting all the panels together, join the wire you ran from the back to the repair wire you just installed.
Step 14:
Re-assemble everything as it should be.
Step 15:
You now need to do some coding with VCDS as below:
In module 09 - Central Electrics
Byte 3, Bit 1 uncheck as you will now have 2 fog lights
Byte 4, Bit 4 check activation of both rear fogs
Byte 10, 15% rear fog as parking light or the same as what you lights are set at. I had to change mine to 1 to get it as dim as possible and adjust my driving lights a little brighter as below.
Byte 12, 35% Rear parking light dimming
I also changed the following previously to get just the outer rings on without the inners:
Byte 9, 0% Rear brake light as parking light
Hope this helps? Any questions, let me know.
