Hi

I've just installed a new light in the boot of my bora to replace the pitiful excuse for a boot light that is installed as standard... This is what you get as standard

However, when I mod a car, I always want to be easily able to reverse it should I not like it, or should I want to sell the car, so I bought 2 30cm Cold Cathode tubes from maplin (I chose a cool white) for about £10 and a VW OEM plug (4B0 971 992) and 2 repair wires (2 of 000 979 134) to attach in place of the standard boot light.

The connector looks like this

Installation could not be any easier - pull the OEM light from the boot and remove the wiring connector and plug in the new connector and wire it appropriately to your cold cathode tubes. Mount the tubes where you want them to be (try a few different places to get the desired effect) and velcro them to the body.I mounted them like this...

and you should get something similar to this...

Thanks to Neil (old_no7) for his help with part numbers for the connector

Hmm, that looks tempting.
Im off to look for somewhere to put them in my golf.

Do you know how you make them turn on with the boot?  Is it just tapping straight into the boot light itself with the 12V cathode wires?

 Clean that boot Si, you should be ashamed

Nice mod though, might have a dabble myself

Neil

I did something similar in my golf boot with led strips after seeing someone else on here posted up some pics.

I mounted 2 30cm white led strips under where the parcel shelf rests - the plastic bits, just gotta watch out for the depth of them other wise the side panels wont open

Either way it certainly improves the lighting!!!

Mark

ive doen the same. wired it to my regular boot light for the feed and it makes a world of difference.

the standard one is  rubbish. it was really woeeful tryign to fidn something on the motorway at night.

 as mentioned on your other thread, that's excellent, shall give that a go

I did the same on mine,  bought a long led strip light from ebay and attatched it to the underside of my rear strut brace.    It's such a useful mod

I will be doing this !   genius !

Don't buy them of ebay they rip you off.

Go to ebuyer.co.uk buy them from their for half the price.

 Hi All,

I did the same with 3 xenon light strips, think its around 24 LEDs each strip and soldered to the top of the original light works fine and is too bright now hehe.

Looks good and is a cheap mod which is really effected.

Will try post pics later. 

Going to order some from ebuyer this eve and do this myself! Boot light is rubbish. Thanks for the part numbers too - will get them ordered.

Cool, worthwhile mod

 Hi

I did this a while ago using a 12V camping light from Halfords - http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_156115_langId_-1_categoryId_165497

I cut off the crocodile clips and soldered them to the original boot light wiring and so have them both working together. Cant see the light itself when looking in the boot which I like.

Prefered it to the Neon tubes as it seems slightly less likely to break if anything hits it when in the boot and also it has its own switch so can be turned off when not needed and just the standard boot light will come on.

HTH

Tom

ordered 2 x cold cathodes from ebuyer today too.  £2.99 !

lets see more pics of your handy work lads

Right bargain from ebuyer! Just need to find somewhere to mount the one on the left side of the boot as the first aid kit door will get in the way.

only one cathode working at the moment as a managed to whack the other one with the pushchair !

unitzero:

only one cathode working at the moment as a managed to whack the other one with the pushcahair !

That's why I went for LED strips when I did mine, as I suspected I'd end up doing the same with suitcases come holiday time!

Hey all,

My Mod done a while back 3 LED strips from my old mr2 which I used for side lights like the R8 lol, now in the bora boot.

Sorry about the camra phone pics....

Laminate flooring in the boot - fancy!

sorry for dragging this back up, but im doing this at the moment which is a really worth while mod for me.. specially in these dark months when there is always something in the boot you want etc..  

i get the idea of the plug to basically just plug it straight in, but the repair wires? Whats that for?  And what do they look like?

markyb:

sorry for dragging this back up, but im doing this at the moment which is a really worth while mod for me.. specially in these dark months when there is always something in the boot you want etc..  

i get the idea of the plug to basically just plug it straight in, but the repair wires? Whats that for?  And what do they look like?

The repair wires have the connectors to fit the plug, they are just wires with connectors on. Makes the job so much simpler :)

Ahhh thanks Si

was the terminology.. repair wires for me was repairing something that was broken etc.. didnt register. I had an idea it was something but didnt wanna order it all up and then find it wasnt needed as my stealers are noticed for being thick at the best of times!

 nice little mod that..!! i'll try it out on mine 2!

 Does anyone know where i can get the connector from for this great mod?

I think that's a very worthwhile investment but; my boot is normally full and having installed one of cold cathodes, they are a bugger if they smash - since 2005 when I joined ukmkivs no one (Chris please get on the case ha!!) has come up with a rugged and OEM looking option, I mean what about wiring up four or so of the standard lights and fitting them with burn your eyes out bulbs? Someone must have done that? I think the boot lighting in Golfs is appalling and surely there must be someone on here that has invented what I am describing here? 

Like I said, I have tried this but mine got smashed and it was a bit like Blackpool illuminations, I just want the flexibility of switching say, two lights on drivers side, same passenger, back and for them to be high power not stingy VW lights...Anyone??

Antvw:

 Does anyone know where i can get the connector from for this great mod?

As the part number for the connector is given in the first post I hazard a guess that you may be able to get it from VW...

VW?

zipper:

I think that's a very worthwhile investment but; my boot is normally full and having installed one of cold cathodes, they are a bugger if they smash - since 2005 when I joined ukmkivs no one (Chris please get on the case ha!!) has come up with a rugged and OEM looking option.

Quite a few people on here in the past have done this with LED strips, which are pretty rugged, you're unlikely to break one of those without deliberate effort. And you can choose the colour and placement to make it as subtle or as bling as you like? In my Golf I stuck the strips to the underside of the parcel shelf supports, so you could see the light emitted but the strips themselves were not directly visible.

Ballesteros:

zipper:

I think that's a very worthwhile investment but; my boot is normally full and having installed one of cold cathodes, they are a bugger if they smash - since 2005 when I joined ukmkivs no one (Chris please get on the case ha!!) has come up with a rugged and OEM looking option.

Quite a few people on here in the past have done this with LED strips, which are pretty rugged, you're unlikely to break one of those without deliberate effort. And you can choose the colour and placement to make it as subtle or as bling as you like? In my Golf I stuck the strips to the underside of the parcel shelf supports, so you could see the light emitted but the strips themselves were not directly visible.

Hmm, never managed to find any of the threads, will have a rummage. Can we have pics of the strips on the parcel shelves please.

Hows that for a light and a half

2 LED strips bought off ebay which came from china. Total price under £10 and then the cable, free from work and the connector and wires £1.50 ish.. Not too bad i dont think. Altho, as the interor light goes off, the boot light dim, like a time sensor, but it is still useable in complete darkness and still loads better then the original poxy thing in the corner. If you open the door again the lights go bright as fook again in the boot. Weird but true.  Anyway i can live with that!!

What an ace mod! Also I couldn't help but notice that can of Dulux looks as if it's floating in the third pic lol

Morning gents.

I bought a pair of white cold Cathode tubes off ebay which arrived this morning. The tubes where intended for a computer case, as such an override switch and power inverter have also been included. Will i need the inverter, I assume that I will but i just thought I would ask the question first.

Wiring/Electrics is not my thing

search the net for litewave led tape, no chance of breaking this stuff as its solid state leds and it can be cut to length. 3mm thick. I sell this product to trade only but you can buy online at litewave.

degudodger:

Will i need the inverter, I assume that I will but i just thought I would ask the question first.

Sorted. I will need the inverter. Sorry chaps I was having a bit of a scope moment!

 If anyone's intersted I got these prices today 18/05/09 from vw -

VW OEM plug (4B0 971 992) £0.90 + vat = £1.04

repair wires (2 of 000 979 134) £1.56 + vat each = £3.59 inc for both