Ever since I bought the .:R (8 years last month) the trunk light and location has annoyed the crap out of me. At night, the trunk is pitch black and the location of the light ends up blinding you when trying to see inside. :banghead:
After checking out a custom LED install in a new Passat at a VW Headquarters GTG (thanks coffemade) I decided to upgrade. Here are the details and results of my project.
Parts
50cm Natural White WFLS-NW30-BK Weatherproof High Power LED Flexible Light Strip - Black Circuit, $14.95
10’ 18 AWG Two Conductor Power Wire, WP18-2, $2.00
VW Door Panel light (4B0 947 415) to use for connector, eBay, $10.00 shipped
Solder & heat shrink
Procedure
This was a fairly straight forward install. I removed the trim piece along the back of the hatch opening to expose the wiring harness and removed the right side panel to get to the back of the trunk light.
The spare OEM light was purchased to use as a donor connector. I wanted to be able to plug into the stock harness and return to stock if I ever needed the OEM light or wanted to quickly remove the LED lighting. I’m not a fan of using wire taps unless I have to. If that’s your choice, you can save a few bucks by not buying a spare light.
I cut the OEM light down with wire cutters to expose the plug & cleaned up the edges with a file. This gave me access to solder the power wires and cover with heat shrink.
The LED strip came as one piece of 30 LEDs but you can cut them in 3 LED increments and solder power wires to the end after trimming away the protective rubber coating. There is a good how-to video on Superbrightleds’ web site. Of course I just cut them in half to have 15 LEDs per side.
Once the power wires were soldered to the OEM plug and heat shrink applied, I was ready to install. Installation of the 2 sets of lights is directly under the side trim of the hatch shelf. I don’t have a picture but if you look underneath there is a smooth, flat area for the lights to stick. The LED strips have 3M sticky tape backing and since they’re extremely lightweight, I don’t see them coming loose (over a month and so far so good). Just be sure to clean the mounting surface with alcohol or Windex before mounting. I ran the wires through the OEM wire loom in the back and tie wrapped in a few places to secure but it’s not required unless you’re anal about this type of stuff. Connect to the OEM light plug, replace the trim and you’re done.
Observations
WOW!
I should’ve done this years ago! Pictures don’t do it justice but there is plenty of clean light. This is how it should be from the factory. $30-35 may sound steep but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Makes the trunk much more usable at night and it looks good enough to show off. I often find myself opening the trunk at night because it looks so cool!
Any questions or additional pictures, just PM me.
Peace
OEM Spare Trunk Light - cut down to use as a donor socket
![Image]()
![Image]()
Wiring up the LEDS
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
Stock trunk light location and plug
![Image]()
Results!
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
After checking out a custom LED install in a new Passat at a VW Headquarters GTG (thanks coffemade) I decided to upgrade. Here are the details and results of my project.
Parts
50cm Natural White WFLS-NW30-BK Weatherproof High Power LED Flexible Light Strip - Black Circuit, $14.95
10’ 18 AWG Two Conductor Power Wire, WP18-2, $2.00
VW Door Panel light (4B0 947 415) to use for connector, eBay, $10.00 shipped
Solder & heat shrink
Procedure
This was a fairly straight forward install. I removed the trim piece along the back of the hatch opening to expose the wiring harness and removed the right side panel to get to the back of the trunk light.
The spare OEM light was purchased to use as a donor connector. I wanted to be able to plug into the stock harness and return to stock if I ever needed the OEM light or wanted to quickly remove the LED lighting. I’m not a fan of using wire taps unless I have to. If that’s your choice, you can save a few bucks by not buying a spare light.
I cut the OEM light down with wire cutters to expose the plug & cleaned up the edges with a file. This gave me access to solder the power wires and cover with heat shrink.
The LED strip came as one piece of 30 LEDs but you can cut them in 3 LED increments and solder power wires to the end after trimming away the protective rubber coating. There is a good how-to video on Superbrightleds’ web site. Of course I just cut them in half to have 15 LEDs per side.
Once the power wires were soldered to the OEM plug and heat shrink applied, I was ready to install. Installation of the 2 sets of lights is directly under the side trim of the hatch shelf. I don’t have a picture but if you look underneath there is a smooth, flat area for the lights to stick. The LED strips have 3M sticky tape backing and since they’re extremely lightweight, I don’t see them coming loose (over a month and so far so good). Just be sure to clean the mounting surface with alcohol or Windex before mounting. I ran the wires through the OEM wire loom in the back and tie wrapped in a few places to secure but it’s not required unless you’re anal about this type of stuff. Connect to the OEM light plug, replace the trim and you’re done.
Observations
WOW!
I should’ve done this years ago! Pictures don’t do it justice but there is plenty of clean light. This is how it should be from the factory. $30-35 may sound steep but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Makes the trunk much more usable at night and it looks good enough to show off. I often find myself opening the trunk at night because it looks so cool! Any questions or additional pictures, just PM me.
Peace
OEM Spare Trunk Light - cut down to use as a donor socket
Wiring up the LEDS
Stock trunk light location and plug
Results!
