S80: Electrical Retro Fitting 2014 Rear Tail Lights

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

As discussed Here over on Swedespeed. Unfortunately, due to the vagaries of photophuckit, many of the informative photos are no longer available! So here are mine!

I fancied this myself... The lights are not as cheap as in the Us but a healthy discount from my friendly parts man made it less painful!

So, how easy is it? Not difficult at all!. I also want to activate the passenger side rear fog light so I was expecting to need to order a "continental part as I had to with the V90. Not at all. There are only 2 parts for the S80, Left and Right (when looked at from the rear of the vehicle - I'll follow that terminology through the topic)!

So, parts ordered and collected following sightings of some rare moths when my wallet was opened!





Ok... Doesn't look too much trouble. The units are held in position by three nuts attached to fixed bolts within the unit itself, but they are fiddly to get to (at least one - on top very much so) and either a long socked or ratchet driver (10mm nuts) is needed to loosen, then remove using finger-tip control.
Unclip the single, central, wire connector whilst also keeping your hand holding the cluster in position (stops it dropping) and then carefully remove straight out and place carefully away (I ended up popping the old ones in the new ones' boxes).





I then cleaned the rear area where the new cluster fits.
[Warning] This is not quite the case for the right side, there is an additional "clip" on the top rear of the cluster to stop it from dropping out. It also stops you from removing it if you were unaware of its presence!

The new clusters come complete with both the bulb units, bulbs and foam water repellent backing on the back so it really is a case of just swapping them over.



Carefully line up your new cluster with the bolts and plastic positioners and ease into position. Once in position, get one of the nuts and finger screw it on and repeat for the other two whilst gently holding the cluster in position.
Once lined up nicely apply a little gentle pressure to the cluster and using the ratchet or long socked (10mm) and tighten up the nuts until you are happy they are firmly in position. Pop the connector back into the socket on the rear of the removable bulb holder/unit.
Repeat for the other side and voilà!









Be warned, as these lights are [mostly] based on LED bulbs (running light and brake light) you WILL get a warning:



But when you have this, it is worth it...



But only for the brakes, nothing else. So the next task is to determine which wires I need to connect the resistors to to kill the Brake bulb warning. Then I need to find the wire that should be in position 4 of the socket on the left to power the passenger side rear fog.



All the bulbs are there, including the fog which is strange. What is missing appears to be the power as there are tracks in place for power and earth so some further digging (or help from a knowledgeable fellow enthusiast) will follow....


Edit: Update 1


Ok, so I got some resistors, as I was getting bored of seeing "Check Brake Light!" every morning and evening! Some discussion on swedespeed mentioned that 100w 6ohm resistors would run cooler than someone who used 50w 6ohm. A reasonable idea as the temperature measured was 98°!!!

This is (like) the one I ended up with: Linky



Where to put them though....! reinnie on swedespeed had some images and thanks to the big photophucket in the sky they were hardly every visible. Got them now so thanks to him for these images:

Left (as viewed from the rear remember): Pins are 3 and 6. | Pin 3 – Black and Brown | Pin 6 - Brown and Purple



Right: Pins are 3 and 4. | Pin 3 – Blue and Black | Pin 4 – Purple and Brown



When using the snap-lock clips (Yes, I know! These are temporary to make sure before I solder them in.) I noticed a couple of unusual things:
1) Left side connector has got two wires in each of the pin connectors.
2) One of the wires is thinner than the other, I used the thinner of the two as this "seemed" to be the correct one as per the photo.
3) On the right side, there was only one wire in each of the pin connector points!
4) By the looks, someone had been messing before me with the wires as there is a screw connector and another plug in the area behind the cover. Odd...

Clipped in and made sure there was a good connection, likewise on the right side, and tested. Warning was still there! Odd.
Got out, looked and one light not working! Got other half to press the brake and right nothing! Shut the engine off and contemplated for a minute. Opened the boot and started to check - I hadn't plugged the right connector back!!! Duh!!!!
Plugged in and tested again. Voilá! No warning and all lights working.

Next the fog light...

Des. . .

[Tatsfield]

I did this job on a Peugeot 406 Coupe where all that you say about the missing fog power source applied. I found the present source on the working side and put a lead across behind the boot cladding to power the other socket. This enabled the switch to control both lights.

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

Updated the main topic. Warning now a distant memory!

Des. . .

[IanB76]

Looks great this I ended up here after finding your posts on swedespeed :-) Just so happens I am a member on here. Going to look at having a go at this myself

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

Feel free to give a shout if you have problems..

Des. . .

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

Strangely enough I got he Brake light warning today.
That's way too early for the tail-light brake LED to fail I thought.

Then I thought that, maybe, one of the resistors had failed.... Odd....
I checked the outside temperature reading. That was showing 40° !!! I is Warm in Germany!

Once cooled down a little, no more warnings....

Des. . .