We had already checked bulbs, connections, brakelight switches (hydraulic switch under the front end - who knew!) and there was no response. The brake lights were intermittent, and life was not good.
We ended up ordering from Megabug and the items here arrived within a couple of days, well packed and quickly sent.
So this Saturday, we decided that the weather wasn't going to get any better, and if we didn't do it this weekend then there would be another 2 weeks until Brian could go anywhere. This was not good news. I wrapped up well, and got in there.
I will point out now that this is an almost literal statement. I can get in the engine bay up to my waist if I need to, and use both hands. Hence why I can show you pictures like this.....
Yes. Even a person with the most basic electrical knowledge could see that these two things should be connected, and that without them connected then the lights will not come on. The sharper eyed amongst you will notice that the spade connector on the loom side is busted. This could well be the reason it wouldn't stay on lol! Also, the bulb holder doesn't clip all the way through into the unit properly. Whilst this isn't a major problem, it could be why the bulb wasn't connecting properly.
Basically there was a fair few issues, and we went ahead with the change.
This is a piece of VW brilliance, in my humble opinion. There are 4 nuts, and they all have a flange on them. To get them off I needed a deeper than average socket, 8mm, and a long handle (for most of them, a couple needed the ratchet because of space issues caused by the battery!) The nuts go onto a bolt that has a plain shank, and then the thread starts, enabling the person who is in the engine bay up to her waist whilst currently getting rained on, to line up the nut swiftly and easily. Fabulous. Loving your work VW.
Bolts were undone, and the whole unit brought forward.
The new unit was offered up next to it. This was part of our cunning plan of Not Getting The Wires In The Wrong Place. We unpopped from the older unit, and popped straight onto the new one.
Da-dah! There we go! New wires all in the right places.
New unit though, did not have the plain shank onto the thread. It just had the thread. This was not as useful for the person up to her waist in the engine bay, getting rained on, and now with cramp in her legs. Just saying.
The new unit was offered up and all was good. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that Brian has no bulb in his reversing light section. He's a 1972 camper, and reversing lights were not compulsory until 1973, however because he's a cross-over bay, he has the light unit set up for it ready for when it did become compulsory. He has none of the gubbins to make it actually work though!
From the inside, with new spade connector clearly attached.
And the completed light unit! We did the passenger side on the Sunday, as the rain was getting too much by the time we had completed the drivers side and I was wet. The passenger side was easier than the drivers side, mainly due to the battery being *right* in the way on the drivers side, so the pictures have come from the passenger side, due to the space and the dryness!
We did have to have a little fiddle about, because when we tested the passenger unit it appeared to be stuck on brake. This was a moment of almost swearing, to be honest. The drivers side was fine, the passenger side was too bright, with no alteration when the brake pedal was depressed, unlike the drivers side which then brightened under braking, as it should do. All it took to fix it though, was a chance remark of "What's the worst thing that could happen if we swapped the wires around on the brake light?" and there we go!
Everything was working well and happily!
Of course, Brian couldn't be having that. He did grumble about going down the road, and managed to make his accelerator pedal stick for no reason, and now the passenger door handle is sticking a bit, and the leak on the passenger door has got a bit worse, to be fair, so Brian is intent on keeping us busy!
As a further aside, we've also had a problem with the insurance. I would recommend that everyone checks their insurance status on askmid.co.uk, as we had the grumpy letter this week telling us we weren't insured even though we have been since August. It's dealt with now, but would have proved difficult if we'd have been stopped for anything.... like not having any brake lights for example!
