I’ve upgraded the boot lights in my NC to LED, I can now see what’s in my boot
For the moment, I’ve taken the power from the existing switch (which still controls the original and the new additional lights).
However, this is a faff to turn the light on and remember to turn it off. The obvious answer would be to fit a door closure switch to control the lights so they turned off when I closed the boot. I don’t want to place the switch on the body work outside the weather seal as this would mean a hole into the boot with obvious water ingress potential.
The other alternative would be to use a tilt switch which (in theory) would activate when the angle of the boot lid was changed to open.
Has anyone done this mod and how did you solve the switch problem?
There is a switch incorporated in the boot lock mechanism. Why not take two wires from the original boot light and then your new light will go on and off with the original.
Some people have missed this switch in the past and thought the original boot light is manually controlled.
Mmm. I thought about a torch and for me, it’d either be rolling around in the boot on its own or lost under a pile of recycling for the tip, unavailable when I wanted it. Hard wired lights are the way to go IMHO.
I would guess it is part of the alarm and on the retractable hard top it stops the roof moving if the boot is released.
Are you sure that the light is only manual, I would have thought over the years many owners would have complained that by leaving the light in the on position when closing the boot had resulted in a discharged battery.
Several years ago I had a Citroen Xantia which had a mechanical form of “tilt switch” to control the boot light, from memory it involved a ball bearing to make the circuit.
I replaced the switch with a mercury one after it gave some trouble, only cost a couple of quid and worked fine when I sold the car 2 years later.
You are assuming the boot light is manual, so you switch the parking lights on as well - not necessary. The boot light will come on a) when you open the boot, and b) when you switch the parking lights on - that makes it manual - so you think.
The boot lights are also the tail number plate light - that’s why they come on with the parking lights. One tip, if you need the boot open for any length of time, get a normal wide blade screwdriver and press down on the lock ‘hook’ - this makes the light think the boot is shut, and stops draining the battery. DON’T forget you did this though - there’s a substantial Clunk if you try to close the lid without releasing the lock.
The boot light switch is part of the lock mechanism, and yes - it also signals the alarm system that the boot is open - it’s that way in case someone thinks your boot is full of goodies. I don’t have the electrics manual for the Mk3, but on my Mk2.5 if you open the boot, press door lock on the remote, then close the boot lid - the alarm system then clicks in - that’s when the lights flash. Conversely, you should be able to open the boot with the remote (if you’ve got one?) when the alarm is set - I do it every time I load shopping in the boot. Having taken the trolley back, I then open the doors with the remote and the alarm turns off.
All NC are the same, the light turns off when the boot is closed. If you want to try it, open the boot, turn the light on then use a screwdriver to latch the boot latch. Release the boot latch before closing the boot though…