Ok, I've seen a lot of threads with partial or mis-information, so I decided to do a DIY with as much info as I remembered to get. I forgot to take a couple photos I wanted to, but they aren't necessary.
So here is a basic picture of the bulbtrays and lenses that make up golf euro tail lights:
![Image]()
As you can see, these tails use the tray type holder similar to Jettas instead of the individual bulb holders found on US Golf tail lights. The point of this DIY is to make the wiring straight forward.
Materials needed:
Euro Tail Lenses
Euro Tail Bulb Trays
Jetta Tail Light Plugs (2 for standard installation or 3 for fog)
Butt Splices or Solder and Heat Shrink
5007 Light Bulbs QTY. 2 for Parking Lights
7506 Light Bulbs QTY. 8 (6 without rear fog) (1156 Bulbs are the same with a brass base. You will have to use 1156A for the turns if you have clear lights. Make sure left and right bulbs in each position are identical numbers though as some weird things can happen if they are different.)
6 long neck bottles of an extremely dark imported beer
If you look at the US tails next to the euro tails, you will see they have a different layout. The euro tails have spots for a rear fog light. They also use all single filament bulbs whereas the US tails use dual filament bulbs for the brake and parking lights.
Now moving on to the fun part...
![Image]()
The bulbs are labeled in the factory european locations. While there are other arrangments possible, I will not be going over those.
Terminals are as follows:
1 - Parking/Tail Light +
2 - Brake Light +
3 - Turn Signal +
4 - Reverse Light +
5 - Ground -
6 - Rear Fog Light +
The terminals labeled with an "A" after the terminal serve the same function as above. Using them is possible, but will not be as clean of an installation.
![Image]()
Terminals are as follows:
1 - Rear Fog Light + (Not Used)
2 - Ground -
3 - Reverse Light +
4 - Turn Signal +
5 - Brake Light +
6 - Tail Light +
Ok, now looking at the Jetta connectors, you will see that there are 5 wires on the connectors. If you look at the terminals shown in the pictures above you will see they do not line up with the wires in the connectors. This is easily solved. If you look at the connectors on the side the wires enter, you will see you can unclip one side and open the connector. This allows the terminals in the connector to be inserted and removed, but they are still locked in place. There is a small clip on each terminal you need to release in order to remove the terminal from the connector. To reach this clip, you need an item such as a jeweler's screwdriver. Stick the screwdriver into the connector between the terminal and the non-opening side of the connector and twist. This will push up on the clip allowing you to remove the terminal. If you study the connector you should be able to figure this out as I forgot to take the pictures.
Now you can reinsert the terminals in the order needed to match the bulb trays. You will notice a couple of the terminals on the driver's side have two wires attached to them. These are the wires for the brake and reverse lights. These need to be in the proper position to take advantage of the two wires already being crimped together.
Before I get to wiring colors, I do have a couple things to note:
1. You will need to run a new ground wire for the euro tails as the 4 individual ones on the US tails are not sufficient when only one of them is used.
2. There are several mistakes that can be made, but if you are having problems once you are done, always check the fuses.
I will add the wiring colors later as I need to sit down with the Bentley to do the different years...
Wire colors: (These are from the Bentley diagrams so they should be accurate)
Grounds are always Brown
1985-1989 Golf/GTI U.S. Production
Left Backup Light: Black with Yellow stripe (Yellow might be grey)
Left Tail Light: Grey
Left Turn Signal: Black with White Stripe
Left Brake Light: Black with Red Stripe
Right Backup Light: Black with Grey stripe (Is powered from Left Backup Light)
Right Tail Light: Grey
Right Turn Signal: Black with Green stripe
Right Brake Light: Black with Red stripe
1989 Golf/GTI Mexican Production
Left Backup Light: Black
Left Tail Light: Grey with Black Stripe
Left Turn Signal: Black with White Stripe
Left Brake Light: Black with Red Stripe
Right Backup Light: Black (Is powered from Left Backup Light)
Right Tail Light: Grey with Red Stripe
Right Turn Signal: Black with Green stripe
Right Brake Light: Black with Red stripe
1990-1992 Golf/GTI Mexican Production
Left Backup Light: Black
Left Tail Light: Grey with Black Stripe
Left Turn Signal: Black with White Stripe
Left Brake Light: Black with Red Stripe
Right Backup Light: Black (Is powered from Left Backup Light)
Right Tail Light: Grey with Red Stripe
Right Turn Signal: Black with Green stripe
Right Brake Light: Black with Red stripe (Is powered from Left Brake Light)
**Note: On 1990-1992 Golf/GTI the third brake light is powered from the right brake light.
So this pretty much is all the information needed. Basically all that needs to be done is connecting the correct wires to the correct locations in the Jetta tail light connectors. I would suggest solder and heat shrink as it is the cleaner of the two methods for splicing the harness to the connectors. On the items listed in the wiring list as being powered from the from the left light, this means you will need to use the terminals with two wires attached from the Jetta connectors.
And remember children, if you decide to wire up the rear fog light, on a left hand drive car, only the driver's side one is used.
Class is dismissed...
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
I will go back over this a couple times in a day or two looking for typos. Anyone feels I missed something or made an error, let me know.
Modified by JethroWV at 10:39 PM 6-28-2006
Modified by JethroWV at 10:48 PM 6-28-2006
So here is a basic picture of the bulbtrays and lenses that make up golf euro tail lights:
As you can see, these tails use the tray type holder similar to Jettas instead of the individual bulb holders found on US Golf tail lights. The point of this DIY is to make the wiring straight forward.
Materials needed:
Euro Tail Lenses
Euro Tail Bulb Trays
Jetta Tail Light Plugs (2 for standard installation or 3 for fog)
Butt Splices or Solder and Heat Shrink
5007 Light Bulbs QTY. 2 for Parking Lights
7506 Light Bulbs QTY. 8 (6 without rear fog) (1156 Bulbs are the same with a brass base. You will have to use 1156A for the turns if you have clear lights. Make sure left and right bulbs in each position are identical numbers though as some weird things can happen if they are different.)
6 long neck bottles of an extremely dark imported beer
If you look at the US tails next to the euro tails, you will see they have a different layout. The euro tails have spots for a rear fog light. They also use all single filament bulbs whereas the US tails use dual filament bulbs for the brake and parking lights.
Now moving on to the fun part...
The bulbs are labeled in the factory european locations. While there are other arrangments possible, I will not be going over those.
Terminals are as follows:
1 - Parking/Tail Light +
2 - Brake Light +
3 - Turn Signal +
4 - Reverse Light +
5 - Ground -
6 - Rear Fog Light +
The terminals labeled with an "A" after the terminal serve the same function as above. Using them is possible, but will not be as clean of an installation.
Terminals are as follows:
1 - Rear Fog Light + (Not Used)
2 - Ground -
3 - Reverse Light +
4 - Turn Signal +
5 - Brake Light +
6 - Tail Light +
Ok, now looking at the Jetta connectors, you will see that there are 5 wires on the connectors. If you look at the terminals shown in the pictures above you will see they do not line up with the wires in the connectors. This is easily solved. If you look at the connectors on the side the wires enter, you will see you can unclip one side and open the connector. This allows the terminals in the connector to be inserted and removed, but they are still locked in place. There is a small clip on each terminal you need to release in order to remove the terminal from the connector. To reach this clip, you need an item such as a jeweler's screwdriver. Stick the screwdriver into the connector between the terminal and the non-opening side of the connector and twist. This will push up on the clip allowing you to remove the terminal. If you study the connector you should be able to figure this out as I forgot to take the pictures.
Now you can reinsert the terminals in the order needed to match the bulb trays. You will notice a couple of the terminals on the driver's side have two wires attached to them. These are the wires for the brake and reverse lights. These need to be in the proper position to take advantage of the two wires already being crimped together.
Before I get to wiring colors, I do have a couple things to note:
1. You will need to run a new ground wire for the euro tails as the 4 individual ones on the US tails are not sufficient when only one of them is used.
2. There are several mistakes that can be made, but if you are having problems once you are done, always check the fuses.
I will add the wiring colors later as I need to sit down with the Bentley to do the different years...
Wire colors: (These are from the Bentley diagrams so they should be accurate)
Grounds are always Brown
1985-1989 Golf/GTI U.S. Production
Left Backup Light: Black with Yellow stripe (Yellow might be grey)
Left Tail Light: Grey
Left Turn Signal: Black with White Stripe
Left Brake Light: Black with Red Stripe
Right Backup Light: Black with Grey stripe (Is powered from Left Backup Light)
Right Tail Light: Grey
Right Turn Signal: Black with Green stripe
Right Brake Light: Black with Red stripe
1989 Golf/GTI Mexican Production
Left Backup Light: Black
Left Tail Light: Grey with Black Stripe
Left Turn Signal: Black with White Stripe
Left Brake Light: Black with Red Stripe
Right Backup Light: Black (Is powered from Left Backup Light)
Right Tail Light: Grey with Red Stripe
Right Turn Signal: Black with Green stripe
Right Brake Light: Black with Red stripe
1990-1992 Golf/GTI Mexican Production
Left Backup Light: Black
Left Tail Light: Grey with Black Stripe
Left Turn Signal: Black with White Stripe
Left Brake Light: Black with Red Stripe
Right Backup Light: Black (Is powered from Left Backup Light)
Right Tail Light: Grey with Red Stripe
Right Turn Signal: Black with Green stripe
Right Brake Light: Black with Red stripe (Is powered from Left Brake Light)
**Note: On 1990-1992 Golf/GTI the third brake light is powered from the right brake light.
So this pretty much is all the information needed. Basically all that needs to be done is connecting the correct wires to the correct locations in the Jetta tail light connectors. I would suggest solder and heat shrink as it is the cleaner of the two methods for splicing the harness to the connectors. On the items listed in the wiring list as being powered from the from the left light, this means you will need to use the terminals with two wires attached from the Jetta connectors.
And remember children, if you decide to wire up the rear fog light, on a left hand drive car, only the driver's side one is used.
Class is dismissed...
I will go back over this a couple times in a day or two looking for typos. Anyone feels I missed something or made an error, let me know.
Modified by JethroWV at 10:39 PM 6-28-2006
Modified by JethroWV at 10:48 PM 6-28-2006
