Wiring diagram for rear lights?

[zoricib]

Hi,

 

Thinking to get some LED reflectors for the bumper and saw some that have a reverse light option to them too (reverse lights on my vlands are very dim). Anyone happen to know which wires are the ones for 

1. Lights on

2. Brake light

3. Reverse light

4. Ground (assume black wire?)

Many thanks in advance

[Linas.P]

 

[Vintagesixtysix]

If you decide to go for it…..

drop some photos or a vid if you can.

[zoricib]

On 2/17/2023 at 8:08 PM, Linas.P said:

 

Thanks Linas! Looks like this for the outer cluster, would you happen to have the scheme for the lights on the boot lid? 

 

11 hours ago, Vintagesixtysix said:

If you decide to go for it…..

drop some photos or a vid if you can.

Will do! 

[Linas.P]

Q40 and Q46 are inner lights  on the boot-lid:

If you ask me - I honestly don't understand how they suppose to work. It seems that for outer there is at least signal wire, so they are connected only by + and - and then based on signal wire internal circuit in the cluster decides which light should light-up. But I just don't understand from wiring diagram how the inner lights works and how they are controlled. 

Magic I guess...

[zoricib]

On 2/18/2023 at 9:12 AM, Vintagesixtysix said:

If you decide to go for it…..

drop some photos or a vid if you can.

Finally got round to doing this...but forgot to take any pics of the process.

Firstly, I got some LED reflectors that have reverse lights too as I have to back up on an unlit street every day and the reversing lights on the Vlands didn't do much. Since the reflecors have the reverse lights into them, they came as clear rather than red, but applied some red tint/film from eBay.

Also applied some silicone on the edges of the reflectors as not sure how water tight they are...

These are the reflectors 

This is the red film (yes, this makes the reverse light pinkish, but better than nothing)

I followed instructions to take the bumper off & wire up the lights from this video 

Fed the wires though a grommet - just removed it, fed the wires through & placed back the grommet. Attached a pic of the specific grommet. 

Then for the reverse light I took a feed from the left light cluster on the boot lid, and fed it through the boot arm near the wiring loom that's already there, & daisy chained it to the other side too (FYI used a few extra feet of cable for this). So basically wired from left boot light to left reflector & then to right reflector.

If you have Vlands, the reverse light wire colour is white & looks like in the car's wiring loom it's orange.

I used T-tap connectors like these but shaved a bit of the cable to expose the wire & make sure it will make a connection.

Here's a video of the reflectors in action. Will take another video in the dark too. (Excuse the dirty car)

 

 

[J Henderson]

Do they still act as normal reflectors too?

[zoricib]

26 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Do they still act as normal reflectors too?

Well not really. They still look similar but it won't reflect light like the oem ones do. Had similar LED ones installed for about 3 years and they've never been an issue at MOTs if that's what you're worried about. 

[Linas.P]

36 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Do they still act as normal reflectors too?

Yeah that was my worry looking at them... kind of fail at their purpose sadly. 

5 minutes ago, zoricib said:

Well not really. They still look similar but it won't reflect light like the oem ones do. Had similar LED ones installed for about 3 years and they've never been an issue at MOTs if that's what you're worried about. 

I would be more worried if somebody crashes in my parked car at night, because there are no reflectors. That being said - as I generally don't park outside or on unlit country streets that would be unlikely to happen, still I think reflectors are there for a reason. 

[zoricib]

45 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

would be more worried if somebody crashes in my parked car at night, because there are no reflectors. That being said - as I generally don't park outside or on unlit country streets that would be unlikely to happen, still I think reflectors are there for a reason. 

Yeah, I would have liked them to still be reflective, but it's a compromise I'm happy with as now I can actually see something when reversing in total darkness

[Linas.P]

I don't want to sound snob, but just kind of highlighting the irony of form over function. Keeping the original lights probably allows for enough illumination and keeping the reflectors where they should be. VLANDs look cool, but there is a catch. 

But don't take that too seriously - this is minor detail, I doubt it will ever become relevant, I am just nit-picking and justifying to myself why I don't like aftermarket lights. I like and support car modifications, but only when they have no downsides, sadly the aftermarket "stylised" lights have compromises I would not accept.  

[zoricib]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

I don't want to sound snob, but just kind of highlighting the irony of form over function. Keeping the original lights probably allows for enough illumination and keeping the reflectors where they should be. VLANDs look cool, but there is a catch. 

But don't take that too seriously - this is minor detail, I doubt it will ever become relevant, I am just nit-picking and justifying to myself why I don't like aftermarket lights. I like and support car modifications, but only when they have no downsides, sadly the aftermarket "stylised" lights have compromises I would not accept.  

Oh definitely form over function for most things I changed on my car. The car came with full vland lights at purchase, but would have purchased the rears myself anyways, so would have ended in the same place. No regrets here 😁

 

 

[Vintagesixtysix]

I like them.

✅