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Adding lightness





Sevens are low. Very low. The average SUV driver won't even feel the bumps as they cruise over the aluminium and steel of your car, so getting their attention early helps. A lot. During my first excursion to Wales I was *nearly* run in to by my best mate in his Lotus Evora because the bright sunlight made the standard Caterham brake lights invisible. To fix this I have now installed a pair of high-level LED extra brake lights on the roll bar. In Caterham terms these are the 'top' of the car, but in reality they will still be bonnet level for anything larger than a Ford Fiesta. Let's hope its enough.


Fitting the twin pack of high-level LED brake lights from JAL (www.justaddlightness.com) was fairly straightforward, and there is an easy-to-follow ‘how-to’ video on the JAL YouTube page which covers most of the potential issues. Access to the existing loom on my Seven was challenging, with the wiring tucked right up inside the chassis space by the fuel tank. This area also collects a fair amount of road dirt / muck, so I recommend wearing goggles / eye protection while scrabbling around behind the outer skin.

Access restricted. The loom extensions are fitted between the fuel tank and the aluminium skin.


Prising the connectors apart to add the loom extension takes some persistence and may need the intervention of a small flat-head screwdriver, but once separated, the new loom fits onto the exposed connections smoothly. Crimping the spade connections to join the JAL LED lights to the new sub-loom takes a few minutes – but don’t be tempted to jump ahead (like I did) as the cable from the lights will not slide past the fuel tank with them fitted… They did survive my removal and refitting though. Phew.


One thing to note, not mentioned by JAL or Caterham, when purchasing the sub-loom. You will need a separate sub-loom for each light you are fitting. I bought the LED twin pack, and therefore needed a loom extension for the left brake circuit, and another loom extension for the right brake circuit. I think this should be made clearer. The cost may be minimal – less than £10 for each loom extension – but the delay while waiting for the second delivery is a frustration that could easily be avoided.



The drivers side loom extension sits above the fog light wiring.

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