Ford Fiesta Mk7.5 - High level / third brake light failure - FIXED!

Hello. And long time no see! It's been two years since my last post on here. Now, its not that I haven't been fixing stuff but I had kind of forgotten all about this blog. Plus, I have started fixing things "live" on my Twitch channel which, whilst somewhat troublesome setting up numerous cameras and angles, and my digital microscope, and ensuring I have to hand all the various things required to effect a repair of something, I find less daunting than providing a written-up post on this blog. I think I'm lazy.

Anyway, to the matter in hand. I had a spare hour yesterday afternoon and my mind wandered to the high level or "third" brake light on my 2016 model Fiesta. The light is housed within the spoiler and on my car it had stopped working about five years ago. It's been on my list of things to do since then but since I had read that the light was (a) a sealed unit and (b) could not be fixed and could only be replaced as a full unit for about £70, I was not hopeful and just kind of left it. However, yesterday I did take a look at it. 

Removal from the car is straightforward - just two "star" screws and off it pops. Disconnect the power supply and pull the rubber hose free for the rear window washer. Now, I didn't take any pictures of the next bit but I wish I had - it would be easier than trying to explain in writing what I did. The light unit is indeed "sealed", but not in any serious sense or to make waterproof. 

I was able to flex the whole thing a bit between my palms and create enough of a gap between the two halves to get a Stanley knife blade in there. And having done that, I very carefully pulled the blade all along the seam and then the unit was apart. Inside there is a clear lens which simply unclips. The lens also holds "the bulb" which is, in fact a, LED strip containing three bulbs. Here we are: 

Some pictures of "the bulb":

My bulb was obviously knackered. I did a google to see if the bulb existed as a part in its own right but it does not. But that's ok, as I could see that the bulb runs on 13.5 volts and only requires two wires to work - the feed and the ground. With that in mind, I retrieved an off-cut of LED "neon" rope that was left over from another project - it too only requires a 12v feed and ground to work. Plus, it is encased in silicon and, supposedly, completely waterproof:

So, I soldered a wire tail to each pad on the the neon rope and fed those tails out through the back of the light unit. I then chopped down the clear lens so that it would just sit on top of the neon rope in the correct position in the light. I secured everything with some blobs of silicone bathroom sealant. I then stripped back the wires and added some solder to firm them up.

I refitted the light to the car. I simply poked the soldered ends of my wires into the connector on the car and then tie-wrapped everything together to stop anything becoming dislodged. 

Hey presto: 

 I don't know how long this will work for and, really, I don't care. It cost me nothing to fix (apart from about an hour of my time). If you fancy doing this repair yourself, this is the sort of thing you need: 

The shortest length of bright white led neon rope on Amazon is less than £10 and for that you'll have enough length to fix about 20 fiesta brake lights. You could go into business. You're welcome!

More soon, no doubt....

Dave