The lighting in the boot has always bugged me. Even with High Powered LED bulbs in place of the OEM W5W ones for me it still wasn't what i wanted.

Recently i replaced the DRL on the Slinghshot with Philips Daylight 8 LED after seeing a review of them in a Magazine. They are far better (and far more expensive at £140) than the £40 jobbies i had on.

I had to send my old ones back (part of the reason i changed to phillips after the review) as they let water and crap etc in and these were replaced no questions asked.

So today i had an idea. Instead of the DRL sitting on the shelf in the garage i decided to dismantle them to make them smaller. I took them apart and then fixed them so that i was left with just the Cover and reflector. I then set about dismantling the trim completely from the boot. Once done i fitted them to the side trim panels and then wired them into the existing boot light.

The result is

Lights in position (Sorry its a bit of a crap pic but they are a bit bright for the Piephone to handle)

With boot cover in place which gives a better idea of the brightness)

Overall im extremely happy with the brightness levels now in the boot. The pic doesn't do it justice but to give you an idea the pics were taken inside an illuminated garage. I'm not fully happy on how they look as i would have rather recessed them into the trim. However the light units don't lend themselves well to doing so & i didn't want to start hacking bits of trim up to find i couldn't do it. Also i have a couple of other plans for the car which i need to sort first before i can start doing that. What i do intend to do is make a housing that they can sit in so that they do indeed become flush.

I never took any pics whilst doing the install etc as i was taking my time to do the job neat :( (4 hours in total although about 1 1/2 of that was dismantling trim and putting it back together) I will be dismantling the trim again later in the week so will take some pics then.

Comments good/bad welcome as always

That's pretty cool.

You reckon the replacement LEDs in the boot aren't up to much? The dull lighting's something i've just put up with on this car but was planning on buying replacement bulbs for the new car. Might have a re-think if they're not that great.

I just had an aha! moment when i was looking at the pics... that's how you're supposed to use the boot net!

COUNTY SHERIFF

From out of town, hmm? What's you got in the trunk?

J. FRANK PARNELL

oah...you don't want to look in there.

Brilliant idea, I found the lighting pretty lacking too.

I did wonder about replacing mine with some of the cheap DRLs on deal extreme. Though its more of a problem on the fabia which only has one light

That's pretty cool.

You reckon the replacement LEDs in the boot aren't up to much? The dull lighting's something i've just put up with on this car but was planning on buying replacement bulbs for the new car. Might have a re-think if they're not that great.

I just had an aha! moment when i was looking at the pics... that's how you're supposed to use the boot net!

The LED W5W Bulbs (even though high powered) just didn't give me the light levels i wanted. Unless you could get some CREE XLamp MC-E W5W LED bulbs (which would be almost as much as the DRL's i used) then the best way for me personally was to do it this way.

The netting can be used like that or at the front of the boot nearest the bumper. You also get a seperate net which goes over the floor but i dont use it with having the variable floor.

You also get a seperate net which goes over the floor but i dont use it with having the variable floor.

Ahh ok, that sounds like the net i've got, makes sense that there's 2 different ones. Ah well, nice idea while it lasted :-)

Well it's a solution to a problem I never knew existed. Guess I don't use the boot much.

Ahh ok, that sounds like the net i've got, makes sense that there's 2 different ones. Ah well, nice idea while it lasted :-)

No you should have both.

You get the one you can see in the Pic and the one that fits the floor as part of the boot netting

COUNTY SHERIFF

From out of town, hmm? What's you got in the trunk?

J. FRANK PARNELL

oah...you don't want to look in there.

Brilliant idea, I found the lighting pretty lacking too.

Found the link now

Lol that's the film i thought of when i did it

Some pics at night

Inside the Boot

Lighting up the world

Just what we nedeed after market DRL used as trunk lights

It'll turn heads at Tescos

Do you mind we are posh

We shop at Lidl & Aldi

Thinking about it....

.....it's probably a good job I'm not living near any runways

Jeez, who needs reversing lights, just pop the boot!!

Loving it

I presume then that the existing lighting system doesn't throw up any errors on the system as it does with the external lights? Any links where we can get these lights from?

Loving it

I presume then that the existing lighting system doesn't throw up any errors on the system as it does with the external lights? Any links where we can get these lights from?

Nope the interior lights are not monitored by the bulb failure warning system

You can get the lights from here

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/drl-smd-led-units/drl-high-power-smd-5-led-daytime-running-lamps-emark-p-469.html

If there is enough interest i'll knock up a tutorial when i dismantle the boot again

Edited 20 February, 201115 yr by vRS Carl

Nope the interior lights are not monitored by the bulb failure warning system

You can get the lights from here

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/drl-smd-led-units/drl-high-power-smd-5-led-daytime-running-lamps-emark-p-469.html

If there is enough interest i'll knock up a tutorial when i dismantle the boot again

Nice one - think i will be investing in some of these for the VRS and the Bora (that only has one light near the hatch so totally useless).

How are they currently fixed?

With lights this bright i wonder if these would mount in the boot lid on the estate - need to cut a hole in the trim right enough but great lighting for faffing about changing a tyre or something.

I'm back to dreaming of tescos car parks strolling up, blipping the auto boot release as you approach and illuminating half the car park floor in time to unload the trolley

"Is that a Skoda mate?"

Like this mod - madly bright!

As an alternative I have fitted the surface mounted LED replacement for the boot light in the existing trim mounts. These were plug and play and bright - but not football stadium standard like yours!!!

Nice one - think i will be investing in some of these for the VRS and the Bora (that only has one light near the hatch so totally useless).

How are they currently fixed?

Currently they are screwed to the trim ( I knew I could fix 2 small holes if it went Pete tong ) using the 2 existing screw holes you see in the pic of the DRL i linked but using longer screws. However I did need to cut out a hole about half the size of a match box as one of the resistors sticks out quite far. Hence the reason I now want to make a mount for them so that I can recess it properly into the trim.

I did consider using the tailgate, C Pillar and roof but in the end I decided this would give me the best solution and ultimately not look out of place too much.

Currently they are screwed to the trim ( I knew I could fix 2 small holes if it went Pete tong ) using the 2 existing screw holes you see in the pic of the DRL i linked but using longer screws. However I did need to cut out a hole about half the size of a match box as one of the resistors sticks out quite far. Hence the reason I now want to make a mount for them so that I can recess it properly into the trim.

I did consider using the tailgate, C Pillar and roof but in the end I decided this would give me the best solution and ultimately not look out of place too much.

I may mount mine (its a hatch) where the parcel shelf supports are...will have to look tomorrow for potential mounting points!

It will be far easier on a hatch and you could use the 3M tape

It will be far easier on a hatch and you could use the 3M tape

Or good old cable ties!

You cant have enough light in the boot. Looks excellent.

Now you can code the reversing lights going off, if you open the boot. (it is an option, I had it coded. But at the amount of light your boot has, it even makes sense )