Rear lights

Is your car 6 or 12 volt?

The problem with LED festoon bulbs is that they are ‘directional’ and not as bright as people think. I tried all kinds and gave up in the end.

Standard brake light festoons at 18w are actually pretty bright, anything higher I found out though, overheat and blacken very quickly.

Make sure that the units are earthed properly and the wiring connections are clean and secure, especially on 6 volt as it doesn’t take much to drag the available power down.

You could always add a 3rd LED high Level unit which is pretty simple to do by tapping into the junction block at the left rear of the car, just below the parcel shelf and is very effective, even when kept as low down on the rear window as possible so it’s almost invisible when not lit.

Forgot to add, CTA and others sell a reflector http://www.ctaservice.nl/product/22048/REFLECTOR-ACHTERLICHTKAP that sits below the light unit which does improve things but you can make the same effect by using white reflective ‘Trailer Tape’

I used that under the front and rear indicators to help improve those as well 🙂

what size bulbs are the stop lamps 18 watt?

Have you put any reflector underneath?