Rear Bumper Reflectors

[SAM LOVERS HER TOYOTAS]

Hi and Good Morning All,

My other half has ordered and received some new rear bumper reflectors that light up when you brake, he liked the look of them.

Our questions are,

are the original ones easy to remove?

And the replacements have 3 wires, is there a way to route them into the area we’d need to be in to wire them up?

And finally does anyone know the colour of wire for positive and negative by any chance either side when it comes to braking???

Cheers guys

[FROSTYBALLS]

Suppose the thing to be wary of is whether the new reflectors are as effective as the originsls, and whether they would pass the MOT.

[SAM LOVERS HER TOYOTAS]

9 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Suppose the thing to be wary of is whether the new reflectors are as effective as the originsls, and whether they would pass the MOT.

Cheers Frosty, 

The original reflectors simply reflect when light shines upon them, however these aftermarkets actually light up with led’s once brakes are pressed, hence the 3 wires coming out of them that we need to figure where to tap them into.

re.mot pass...we’re unsure, its like having 2 extra brake lights, hmmm, could it upset the mot tester maybe?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Legally one has to have reflectors at the rear, and I'm not sure whether the illuminating ones reduce the size of the reflecting surface.

For example with the last generation Vauxhall Insignia Tourer the rear lights were on the tailgate and lifted when the tailgate was opened. Vauxhall had to install secondary light clusters/reflectors inside the tailgate opening to ensure the lights/reflectors were visible to oncoming traffic if the car was left parked with the tailgate open. See picture of the Insignia.

Might be as well to check with a tame MOT tester.

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, SAM LOVERS HER TOYOTAS said:

re.mot pass...we’re unsure, its like having 2 extra brake lights, hmmm, could it upset the mot tester maybe?

there are regulations regarding positioning (& iirc no.) of most lights incl. brakes.

Iirc there was at least one of the SUVs (Dahatsu/Mitsubishi/Subaru?) that had 2 sets (1 in the bumpers, 1 further up) of rear lights but 1 set was disabled for the UK?

Mind you, I was following a sporty car the other day & realised that it's "high level" brake light was all of about 1" higher than it's main ones .... kind of defeated the point of being able to see it come on through the windows of the vehicle between you & it (which is why they were introduced) ...