A little light reading in between reading about and planning modifications, missus bought me this for my birthday.
Things have been fairly busy recently with just life in general so I haven't been able to spend as much time on the car as I'd like, seems like in the summer the kids have a different event on every night ahhhhhhh don't think I could take another pantomime in 30 degree heat, or a sports day in the full glare of mid afternoon sun.
The standard yellow I think h7 bulbs had been bugging me for a while, not in terms of there output just how lame they looked on the front of the car.
A quick visit to power bulbs and a shifty for online discount codes I found these;
They also came with matching sidelight bulbs so bonus, I was a bit dubious however as these where blue glass and I thought they would stand out on the car to much.
Vast improvement and I'm impressed with the sidelight bulbs, I will replace the rest of the bulbs with these so all matching.
Soo the above pic shows the rear of my car and the complete lack of a third brake light, it has been like this since I bought it. I was promised by the dealer a new painted spoiler, as I had pointed this out in the forecourt and having done my research knew that the only way to properly repair this was a new one. Well it never materialised and I got sick of waiting. Quick trip to tps in between pantomimes.
I decided I was going to go steady and quite cleaverly drill the lens and use the holes to pop it off so as not to damage the paint around the lens, yeah! that didn't work really. It turns out the plastic lens in the third break light of a mk5 golf gti is the most fragile substance known to science.
The slightest pressure from the bit caused the lens to shatter sending red plastic cascading down my window lodging in my wiper and covering the driveway, but it was a start and after a quick inspection I realised no damage to the paint had been caused out came the rubber mallet and screwdriver.
After removing the red lens I was met with a clear plastic one, enjoying the previous result from my assault with a screwdriver I proceeded in technichal terms to simply rag on it like a banshee till it broke.
You can see the studs on the far left that the screws go into on the inside of the spoiler what a genius piece of design. Close up.
Here I had to delicately smash the plastic around the stud. You can use whichever blunt object you desire, I plumbed for the screwdriver as it was already in my hand.
The lens unit fell out after the last barrage with the screwdriver leaving only the studs these where a bit fiddly to remove you can get you finger in and pin them from behind and unscrew them.
Fun part over now came the grommet or as I like to call it the knuckle shredder, it s on the end of this wire it will come out although only after the plastic around the hole has completely shredded your fingers.
After this I decided a quick sports day was in order.
Here's the little blighter I decided I would cut it in half to make my fingers feel better and to make it a little easier to compress through the hole in the spoiler.
And the connecter behind.
Fairly straightforward after this just the reversal of the process with less emphasis on the smashing. I didn't bother glueing the new unit in it held really well on the clips. Standing back I admired my handiwork.
That's better, rushing inside I proudly displayed the remnants of my vanquished foe to my missus. like a returning hunter I announced my successful replacement of my brake light in what would turn out to be a loud and excitable manner the end result being waking the baby and a bollicking.
More to follow.
