What do you all think?
08-23-1999, 07:52 PM
As many of us, I am sick of the design of the A4 brake lights. My complaint is that I believe it is unsafe that a brakelight and taillight share a lamp.
Thought I'd rewire the tails so the brake light would come on in the upper portion of the taillight assembly, where the rear fogs are. Nobody in the US knows what the hell the rear fogs are anyways. Also, move the rear fogs where the brakelights were, essentially creating a high output taillight that you can switch on as needed (aka rear fogs).
The mod required swapping pins 2-6 on the driver's side and pins 2-5 on the other side. I swapped the pins in the harness connector that plugs into the taillight assembly. The connector can be pried open and pins forced out w/ screwdriver. Takes some force and some miniature latches will be bent/broken, but I found it ample safe to fix the bends and reuse the pins. I also had to fabricate a bulb connector for the passenger side upper lamp position (not used in US, but wired) as well as had to cut the opening of the same position fully open with a knife (idiot proof design does not allow you to put a bulb in there unless you cut some extra plastic).
Here are some pics (if I get the pic poster working for me). Please let me know what you think of the mod. I may undo it, I am undecided.
The plus is that now I have a VERY clearly distinct brake lamp. The drawback is that I have a BLINDENINGLY bright brake light. Well, it is also illegal, but as I said nobody in the US knows about how rear fogs are supposed to work anyways, so let's just call them bright taillights on demand.
Thought I'd rewire the tails so the brake light would come on in the upper portion of the taillight assembly, where the rear fogs are. Nobody in the US knows what the hell the rear fogs are anyways. Also, move the rear fogs where the brakelights were, essentially creating a high output taillight that you can switch on as needed (aka rear fogs).
The mod required swapping pins 2-6 on the driver's side and pins 2-5 on the other side. I swapped the pins in the harness connector that plugs into the taillight assembly. The connector can be pried open and pins forced out w/ screwdriver. Takes some force and some miniature latches will be bent/broken, but I found it ample safe to fix the bends and reuse the pins. I also had to fabricate a bulb connector for the passenger side upper lamp position (not used in US, but wired) as well as had to cut the opening of the same position fully open with a knife (idiot proof design does not allow you to put a bulb in there unless you cut some extra plastic).
Here are some pics (if I get the pic poster working for me). Please let me know what you think of the mod. I may undo it, I am undecided.
The plus is that now I have a VERY clearly distinct brake lamp. The drawback is that I have a BLINDENINGLY bright brake light. Well, it is also illegal, but as I said nobody in the US knows about how rear fogs are supposed to work anyways, so let's just call them bright taillights on demand.