snowromance

This is a DIY for retrofitting your 3rd brakelight with LED lighting. My write-up is simple and straightforward and there is no manipulating of the lights to make any special sequences or anything flash at different times. It's just basic LED lighting. I'm not a fan of all the sequential timing of LEDs and all that nifty stuff. There are probably a bunch of ways to do this but here is how i did mine. I made this very basic and easy so anyone with a little electrical knowledge and a soldering iron can do this in my opinion if you just take your time.

First remove the 3rd brake light assembly. very easy just open the hatch, pop off the black plastic cover. unscrew the 2 mounting bolt/screws and pop the clips out of the door holding it down. unplug it and take it to your work area. take the assembly apart. pop the red plastic lens off the assembly. there are 2 little clips holding it to the base. removed the bulb. turn the socket counterclockwise so that it unlocks and slides right out. should be left with this.


Now design the array your planning and shape the pc board to fit in the light assembly. here's the pc board with my design and cut/shaped to fit how i wanted it. Remember this is a very very basic design and aimed towards being easy for anyone to do.


the quick stuff is over, now just comes the tedious task of soldering. some are faster/slower than others so it might take you awhile just be patient and take your time. we don't want goops of solder all over the place or any cold joints. here are the LEDs soldered to the board.


I use the real Superflux Lumileds LEDs with 2 anodes and 2 cathodes so it gives you more options of how to mount/connect LEDs. i usually solder an anode and cathode in opposite corners to mount them to the board and use the other anode and cathode for soldering the series circuits together. I have LEDs as well if you need any just let me know.

Here is after its all done and sitting in its place in the assembly. now i was going to paint the pc board black like i did with my tail lights but the way the lens is on it actually looked better to keep it this color because you cant see it through the lens like you can if it were black.


So the time is come to figure out how you are going to hook it up in the box. i really wanted to make this mod where it is very easily removable and made back to stock if i wanted. I used some terminal lugs that fit perfectly if you wedged them in the connector's sockets on the outsides edges of where the normal electrical connector makes its connection witht he light bulb. they are pinched between the plastic and the metal making a good solid connection. If you really want to go all out you can order 194 connections and make it truly "plug-and-play" although mine works fine. Has been for over a year now.

Now time to mount the board in there. i sanded 2 little strips of the chrome finish off the plastic. (unnoticeable if returned to stock with the filament bulb)


And used hot glue to hold the LED board to the light assembly.


Now it is all done and ready to mount. you cannot even tell by looking at it that anything is different about it unless you really study it and know there are LEDs in there now.


Mounted back in the box...looks just like stock


Only hit the brakes and...ahhh much better. if you window is dirty you can actually SEE THE 3RD BRAKELIGHT! unlike with stock you just see a faint glow if you're driving in the rain or snow where your back window gets dirty all the time.


Like i said before the most important part of this project was to make the light able to be returned to complete stock if i choose. now just unplug the terminal lugs, pop the pc board holding the LEDs off and stick back in the stock incandescent bulb and you wont be able to tell anything was ever done to it. mission accomplished :-)

Each LED i used is rated 70mA of current (not ebay crappy 20mA ones) and they are very bright. If you want to make one but have questions feel free to PM me. Or i can just make you one.

Take Care and enjoy your new retrofitted 3rd brakelight.

scion08

nice! i know you... from gixxer.com lol

Max

Great writeup, added to tech section.

snowromance

haha look familiar???

http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128452

scion08

great write up, wish i had the ***** to do it.. i just suck at doing those kind of stuff.

SquallLHeart

uhm... i'm sure it could be...
but where does it get the DOT approval really...?

don't add information if it's false.

i'm changing the title.

snowromance

its not that bad man really. i saw a lot of intimidation in that other thread from people and im trying to show everyone its not that hard and worse case scenario you cant do it...and you havent damaged anything. worth a shot right?

oh wow ok man. how many vehicles do you see on the road with a 3rd brake light that is made of LEDs? ya know this isnt even worth talking about...anyone reading...I GUARENTEE you this is DOT approved. 3rd brake lights do not require a reflector and this one doesnt flash or do any special light sequencing. let big man change the title but dont worry it would be completely legal and pass any state vehicle inspection. the information is not false...its obvious. what kind of LEDs do aftermarket companies use when making their LED lights for vehicle applications? these ones

SquallLHeart

actually they use plenty other types of leds..
i've seen TYC use 5mm's for other vehicle applications.

true.. there's no use arguing.... unless you have a DOT number.... it's not "approved"

did i say they wouldn't be if they went thru the proper paperwork? NO.... i'm saying that...

you saying they're DOT approved is like saying that you have a driver's license just because you know how to drive...

get your facts straight bud.

snowromance

oh jeez enough with the douchebaggery. yur ruining a perfectly good thread for people wanting to start learning to make their own LED mods. what is that bad for business or something?

bottom line for anyone interested in this, its a fun project to do and you will learn something along the way :-) your vehicle will pass any inspection by a police officer or any state vehicle inspection agency and you will have something YOU made for your box whenever you see it. have fun with it folks if its something you're thinkin about doing now

bB2NER

Awww don't mind him he likes doing that sometimes. I love the idea and wanted to do this too. My problem is how is this gonna afect the people with cruise? I added an LED bulb to my 3 rd brakelight and the cruise would not work and I got the VSC,Trac Off and ABS lights coming on each time I turned on the cruise. I ended up putting a standard bulb back in to make it work again and stop turning on those lights. Maybe adding resistors to the mix to trick the system into thinking the standard bulb is still in place?

1epoXyBox

Hey Snow, thanks for a great detailed diy. I have been thinking about doing this, and your diy is just what I needed. Thanks!!!!

ICE4ROG

This thread needs a dumb question (well, maybe not dumb but ignorant), is the 3rd brake light required by law? Because I removed mine altogether.

Robert

Nice way to talk to a senior staff member of the forum you are posting on.

snowromance

hmmm im not sure what to tell you there. i have cruise control and it doesnt affect me at all. ive been on the freeway twice since i installed it and used cruise control and nothing was any different than before. when you hit the brakes while driving 12v+ goes down that wire to light whatever it is thats back there to light up. i dont think there is any return signal that knows if a light bulb is in there or not affecting any other vehicle systems. if you plugged in an "LED bulb" than im assuming you purchased an LED packed bulb with a 194 base to plug into that socket. i think its a 194 socket back there but called a different number because the stock incandescent is bigger with a larger filament so its brighter. there will already be resistors internally in the LED bulb you bought so you wont even be able to add more, but i dont think that is your problem there has got to be something more involved. anything else you've done recently ???

about the 3rd brake light being illegal to remove... i dont know but my guess would be that its not illegal to remove. alot of cars on the road dont have a 3rd brake light. my sami doesnt. alot of older cars dont. but the catch is there might be a rule that if it came with one it needs one, kinda like old old cars without seatbelts...you dont need to install seatbelts now if the vehicle never came with them. thats iffy. call your local state patrol :-)

robert, thank you for your insight. i didnt know there was a rank structure here and i was just calling it as i saw it. no harm intended. reminded me of another forum where someone was getting like that "blah blah blah you dont REALLY know you are just saying it..." kind of thing. he got what he wanted, the title was changed. he's just doing his job right? let it goooooo

for everyone else, i hope this helps you in making yours. post it up here when you are done so other people can have more than just one way to do it. improve on mine and make yours better :D. mine is kinda the bare basics of doing something like this.

this was meant to inspire the masses to mod their own stuff with LEDs instead of paying someone else to do it for you

bB2NER

I also had leds tails so all my brake lights were leds. Maybe that was why.
I ran 2 tests. 1 with all the stock bulbs in and everything went back to normal. 2. Then I plugged back in the led tails and it continued working so I left well enough alone.
I'm thinking because you still have normal bulbs in your other brake lights your cruise will still work normal. Or because you have so many leds that they draw enough power so as not to affect the cruise.

Anyhow, Major props on that mod!!! I'm envious and would love to do that same thing to mine so it would match my bBist red/clear LED tails.

snowromance

do it man. its not that hard. took me a couple of hours while hangin out before work and playin with the dogs.

im still not sure as to why it would matter what kind of bulb/LED or even no bulb or shoot just cut the wires even...why that would have any effect on the cruise control???

bB2NER

It was scarey stuff tho having those lights come on. I'm thinking if I do it I'll add a load resistor to the brake light circuit just to play it safe.

snowromance

so does the cruise control get its sensing from the brake light bulb coming on or from the brake switch being engaged? i would think the 2nd one, and thats why i dont understand why your brake lighting has anything to do with the cruise control. i dunno maybe someone could chime in that possibly knows

bB2NER

Best I could tell is that the car knows somehow that there were no normal incandesant bulbs in the brakelight system. As soon as I hit the on button for the cruise those 3 lights lit up. It didn't change the way the engine ran and I don't know if the VSC and ABS were truely turned off during the lights being on. It's just very strange the way this thing is wired up.

snowromance

dude your problem is really bugging me because i cant think of any reason why the lighting for your brakes would have anything to do with your cruise control????

the only thing affecting your signals when running LEDs for lighting is the flasher unit not sensing the correct amount of resistance in the circuit for 4 incandescent bulbs and thats why it flashes fast when one bulb is out. there is no type of flashing or requirement for a certain amount of resistance needed in your running/brake lighting circuitry. the only thing cruise control and your brakes should communicate to each other is when the brake switch is engaged as you press the brake pedal in, the cruise control unit turns off the cruise control.

what are we missing here??? can you think of anything else? i guess ask someone else cuz we got no clue