The 2010 T2 comes with a factory high level
brake light - when I saw it in the flesh at Danbury recently it made me realise how useful an enhancement this is. So Max's Christmas present this year is just that. I've elected to install the 3rd
brake light at the top of the tailgate glass rather than put something on the exterior.
I picked up a Roadster 24 led 3rd
Brake Light off ebay for £5 plus postage from a seller known as apex-auto. Arrived really quick and here's how I installed it. If you've done any car electrics - you'll be able to fit this. It took me about 3 hours.
The light attaches to the glass via arms with sticky pads - there's a screw which locks the angle once you're happy.
Having measured where the centrepoint on the light was I marked the centre point on Max's rear window with a white crayon - to get it all lined up.
Next I made a small hole in the side of the fixing arm to enable the wire to sit snug in the position I wanted the
brake light to be parked in.
Next up I cleaned the fixing area of the glass with an alcohol wipe and stuck the light into position. I fed the wire into the groove between the window rubber and the tailgate and fixed it into position by a strip of white electrical tape. I went for white as it blends beautifully with the paintwork on the inside of the tailgate. I fed the wire through the same path as that of the heated rear window. I used a length of household electrical wire (stiffer) to create the path through to the right hand side of the engine bay and then attached the
brake light wire and pulled it through. It's useful to use the access available via the external air vent for initially pulling the wires through.
I took the opportunity to slip a rubber grommet around the new
brake light wire and the existing heated rear window wire - I don't like wires rubbing against metal for obvious reasons!
With the
brake light wire now in the engine bay I removed the back of the offside tail light and sourced which of the two wires to the centre bulb was the
brake light feed. On my Bay it was the outer wire. For neatness I fed the
brake light wire through the tailight grommet with all the other wires. I pulled off the spade connector, snipped the wire in half and crimped it back together with the positive feed for the new
brake light in addition. Next up I connected the earth to one already in use at the bottom right of the engine bay.
I think the result speaks for itself. I'm a happy campervanner.
