3rd brake light led trouble
 

Hey,

Hopfully the light isn't defective and I'm just being stupid but basically I went today to switch my OEM 3rd brake light with the LED EBAY one and it will not light up.

I turn on the lights, press the brakes and nothing from it. I shouldn't need to turn on the vehicle for the 3rd brake light to work right?

It's annoying me and I have been spending the last few hours searching and trying to figure this out....

Suggestions?? Thanks.

Did you try turning it around? Nevermind.............see the below posts, I apparently didn't understand what you were saying.

BTW..............putting a LED in the third brake light position creates problems for many unless you do it right and have the right value resistor. This isn't your problem at the moment, but watch out for it when you get it working.............your DCS light or ABS light may come on.

I think you're misunderstanding.

This is a whole replacement 3rd brake light with built in LEDs.

I have the same one I believe from a group buy here last year. Most likely you have a defective one. And you are not the first, trust me. These things are junk. Can't expect much from ebay though sometimes.

Ah! Maybe I did.
Should've written "3rd brake light assembly".

dammit, is there a way to test it? like touch the battery terminals with the light? or super bad idea? and yes 05rex8 is right its identical to the group buy ones and its a built in led strip.

^that probably would work

Yeah, that will work(12v battery on the car), but if you got a 9v transistor battery, you could test it! I keep on in the garage for this purpose as I'm always messing with sumtin! The 9v will most likely be enough to at least turn them on, just won't be as bright as 12v.

The other answer that you asked is................you don't have to have the car on or even the key in for the brake lights to function, just depress the pedal.

ok my question, i bought the exact same brake light. Mine does work when I brake. However, I installed an "RX-8" decal on it before I installed it and the LED's are not producing enough light to show the RX-8 image. when i look at the light I can see each individual LED light instead of one bright display. Is this normal? Do I need more power? is it wired correctly? I want the RX-8 to be seen perfectly.