A few weeks ago my friend called me whilst we were in traffic and asked if I had my brakes on because my center brake light was near enough non-visible in daylight.
After searching through the forum I saw it was a common problem on the Mk5's and found a couple of how to guides so thought why not give it a go!
Same again my brother comes into it and picks me up a genuine light clusters from work, this was around the £35 mark.
Tools used:
- Small Flat Head Screw Driver
- Plastic Trim Tools (amazon)
First of all I looked around the brake light cluster and on the left hand side the paint looked slightly disturbed as if someone fancied a go previously, I thought this would be a good place to start to save disturbing the other side.
- I used a flat head screw driver as the trim tools didn't seem sturdy enough to initiate the break of the lense.
Quick picture of the first piece of lense broken, you can see by the disturbed paint where I started on the left hand side
- I then proceeded to remove the rest of the red lense using a trim tool,there is no nice way of doing this so you will hear some funny noises (As stated in the link be aware of pieces of plastic as they have a tendensy to ping off in all direction)
- Once all the lense has been removed you will be presented with the led light cluster
- I then used a trim tool to pry the led strip out (there's x2 small wires going to the rear of the led strip,I just pulled these off as they were no long required)
- I then followed the guide to removing the black casing, this is held on by x2 retaining clip on each side and takes abit of prying from different areas.
- Once pried out the retaining clips stay in place and can be unhooked as they are also no longer needed
- The old light cluster will now be hanging as its still connected by a connector in the spoiler.
- If you follow the wire into the spoiler you will see the wire goes into a rubber grommet, I used a flat head screw driver to pry the grommet out, gently pull the grommet out of the spoiler and the connector will follow.
- You then need to disconnect the old light cluster (self explanatory the little block move to the side and then releases the car hard wiring).
This is now the old light cluster removed and now a case of reversing the last few steps;
- Connect the new light into the wiring of the car.
- Push the rubber grommet back in and feed any excess wire back into the spoiler.
- You now have the choice on whether to put some silicone of some sort on the light to hold it in however Ive just used the clips and it seems more than sturdy.
Then the finished article.
Thanks for reading
Jack
