Repair of high level brake light MG TF - A how to.

When 'indoors got her MG TF in July, we noticed that the brake light was inop. This despite it having just passed an MOT and that having been done with mismatched tyres sizes across the axles! So it was decided to sort the problem out.

A scan of the prices for a replacement, even secondhand was a shock, so consulted a guide elsewhere to find out how it comes out. This guide said to lever it out. Well, I would disagree with that, all it does is to mark the paint, no matter how careful you are.
The way I found is to pop out the interior boot light and press out the fixings from behing with a large screwdriver. Her lamp unit has a split in the lens, so didn't want it getting worse. Once removed I had to cut off the lens with a Dremel and plastic cutting disc. It left a ragged edge, but refixing it will sort that.

The internals were completely corroded away. All that was left were a few resistor tails in the PCB. Clearly the MOT was done by covering up the unit so that it didn't need testing. :nonod: I pondered for some time how to deal with this and set to cleaning up the housing. The old board was removed and the 12V wiring brought through an inch or so.





Now comes the rebuild....

I had some 10,000 mCd white LEDs lurking, so a piece of Veroboard was cut into two strips to match the space inside the lamp housing.





These LEDs were soldered to the centre two rails the full length of the board.






Then the resistors (680R 1/4W) were soldered in from a side rail, to each LED, a cut i the Veroboard rail being made next to each LED to allow it.





Another board was prepared in the same way and the two were connected together and tested.



Once tested OK, the boards were trial fitted into the housing and the tails connected. This is as far as I have got as the boards now need to be sealed with resin and fastened into place with silicon. Then the lens has to be re-attached.

awesome work mate, keep the updates coming :broon:

Mine was trashed all fused bare wires, so light dried out in the airing cupboard, and new wires thing here, Allan was going to fit it for me, hump still waiting .

Well here we are 10 years later and ive just discovered that repaired brake light in the 135 I now own. It could always have been someone else's work following the How To but frankly the soldering technique and placement of the LEDs is identical to the photos in this thread.
Well it lasted 10 years and I've only replaced it because a few of the LEDs had gone down and the red lens then broke removing the unit out of the bootlid.

That’s just a brilliant story & great way effects a repair, any reference to veroboard takes me back decades. I still use it from time to time, but fibreglass board with individual pads is now in favour.