High level brake light

Having now passed the 5000 mile mark in the Mojo, I'm increasingly aware that quite a few drivers of other cars do tend to tailgate in traffic (I guess because the drivers feels they can see 'over' you in a 'little kit car'). I'm also aware that the hydraulic brake light switch isn't quite as sensitive as it could be. In an attempt to reduce the chances of being rear-ended, I decided on two relatively easy upgrades:

1- Fit a high level brake light. Jon, who has been unfortunate enough to suffer 2 recent rear end shunts in his Caterham, got me thinking about this. His most recent repair has included having a high level brake light fitted. Having also seen various other kits with these fitted, I decided to do likewise.

2- Fit a microswitch to detect movement of the brake pedal. This is the method used on pretty much every production car. So, I bought a microswitch for £1.19 from Maplin, with a plan to run it in parallel with the existing hydraulic switch to give an element of fail-safe.

High Level LED Brake Light

The only real option is to mount to the roll bar on the Mojo, as the rear bodywork does not have any flat surfaces. A quick search on the Westfield boardroom found a few pictures of some installations. Some used zip ties, and some were bolted to tapped holes in the roll bar. I was initially unsure about drilling the bar, but decided that a couple of 4mm holes were not going to make much difference in all reality, plus I didn't like the 'unfinished' look from using zip ties. I then called in to my local trade motor factors and picked up a 'Street Wize JS196 36 LED' brake light for under a tenner.

The 2 mounting legs initially had a fairly large flat plate designed to sit against the rear window in a 'normal' car. I trimmed these down as much as possible, and then used some wet and dry paper wrapped around a tube to form a curved profile on the 'feet' so that they would fit snugly up against the roll bar. I then carefully measured the mounting points, checked, double checked, and then centre punched, drilled and tapped the 2 holes.

To minimise the wiring, I considered earthing the light directly onto one of the mounting bolts for the LED, but decided that this could look messy. So, I ran both the live and earth wires along the underside of the roll bar and down to the nearside of the engine compartment. I covered the wire with black insulating tape to disguise it as best as possible. I conveniently had a spare earthing point on the chassis, and wired the live feed in to the multiplug in the wiring feeding the rear lights.

I'm really pleased with the end result. Let's hope it encourages the tailgaters to hang back a little...