Centre brake light

[HBG]

Hi folks.

I've sourced an led third brake light which I'll be sticking to the rear screen glass at the bottom. I'll route the cable under the parcel shelf into the boot and then to the brake lights to pick up power and earth.

Two questions, would you run two wires all the way or just a single core for power and then earth to the body close to the light?

What cable would you use? A twin double insulated type or two single cores? What colours? Red or yellow? What size conductor?


Thanks.

[SanRemo78]

Just pick up a signal feed to one of the existing wires to the rear brakes, try to use the same colour coding and earth out at any convenient location using a black wire.

Guy

[Wangler]

Have you replaced the stop, tail and indicator bulbs (including front indicators) with LEDs?

I replaced mine and they are much brighter than the originals, which seemed to be pretty dim. I was a bit worried that people wouldn’t see me indicating right and being stuck in the road feeling a bit vulnerable. They’re not ridiculously bright, but they are as you would expect of a modern car. You would need to put a different flasher unit in, which is very easy to do. IMO it’s an important safety measure.

[HBG]

Hi. I've recently replaced all of the exterior lamps with LEDs, except the headlights which I'll do at some point. Much brighter as you say. I'll still add the centre light soon. The item I have will be stuck to the bottom of the rear screen inside. It needs a bit of fettling to make right but I'll post up some pics when I get a chance.

[oldracer]

Have you replaced the stop, tail and indicator bulbs (including front indicators) with LEDs?

I replaced mine and they are much brighter than the originals, which seemed to be pretty dim. I was a bit worried that people wouldn’t see me indicating right and being stuck in the road feeling a bit vulnerable. They’re not ridiculously bright, but they are as you would expect of a modern car. You would need to put a different flasher unit in, which is very easy to do. IMO it’s an important safety measure.

Sounds like a worthwhile safety upgrade for most old cars, can you recommend a supplier? I assume fitting is as straightforward as removing the lens covers and swapping out the bulbs?

[HBG]

Fitting was completely straightforward, lamps supplied by classic car leds. Advice freely given by them.

https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk

The most difficult bit being to get the rear lenses back on and sitting in their rubber seals correctly, which was a fiddle.

[oldracer]

Perfect, thanks

[oldracer]

On the subject of lighting, does the Fulvia have hazards? Not that I've needed them (touch wood) but it would seem a useful upgrade if not.

[HBG]

I've not found any on my Fulvia 3. I'll be fitting some soon I expect.

[nthomas1]

Howard - I thought hazard flashers were standard on Series 3.  The S3 wiring diagram that I've got shows them as item 39.   If you don't have them and you want to see how I went about fitting them to my S2 you can see the step by step approach starting on page 38 of my forum thread "slow S2 rebuild". Cheers, Norm

[HBG]

Thanks Norm. If they are there, I haven't found them. I'll need to look closer.

[lancialulu]

Thanks Norm. If they are there, I haven't found them. I'll need to look closer.

the original fit hazard system may not work with LEDs…… It is operated by one (lhs?) of the center console pull switches normally.

[nthomas1]

Interestingly, the 2nd edition Fulvia 3 owner's handbook that I have shows a wiring diagram simply titled  "Wiring Diagram" (presumably the RHD version), which shows no hazard flashers.  Furthermore there's no reference to hazard flashers in the section where dashboard controls are shown.  The same handbook shows a wiring diagram entitled "RHD Car Wiring Diagram - on cars intended for countries where the fitting of hazard signalling is required". This latter diagram shows the hazard flasher as item 39.

So it looks like, at least for UK cars up to those with the edition 2 handbook, there were no hazard flashers.