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Brake lights-C5

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Old Apr 18, 2013 | 04:50 PM
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Default Brake lights-C5

Wondering if anyone knows of a replacement for original brake lights. I am not a fan of the horizontal lines when braking or lights on. I'm not looking for LED, just looking for a more plain oval brake light.
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Old Apr 18, 2013 | 10:04 PM
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All I've ever seen is the LED ones.
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Old Apr 18, 2013 | 10:14 PM
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Sorry, all I've seen is the stock units or various versions of the LED lights.
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Old Apr 18, 2013 | 10:20 PM
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Funny, because I think the brake light is one of the things the GM designers got right with the C5 platform. I like that it is integrated into the rear fascia and is not an add on piece. The OEM is LED so there really aren't too many improvement mods available.
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Old Apr 18, 2013 | 10:28 PM
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Originally Posted by MSG C5
Funny, because I think the brake light is one of the things the GM designers got right with the C5 platform. I like that it is integrated into the rear fascia and is not an add on piece. The OEM is LED so there really aren't too many improvement mods available.
what part of the rear brake light is LED?
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Old Apr 18, 2013 | 10:43 PM
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Originally Posted by momo20
what part of the rear brake light is LED?
I was told the 3rd brake light was LED from forum vendors when I upgraded my rear tail lights to LED Halos. The only mod I've seen for the 3rd brake light was for clear LEDs.
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Old Apr 19, 2013 | 08:10 AM
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The horizontal lines are the reflectors that are integrated into the tail light. Cars are required to have a certain level of reflectivity when the car is parked with no lights on. GM chose to integrate the reflectors vs having a separate one mounted on the car. Unfortunately there aren't too many options out there for different tail lights. You're either stuck with the stock tail lights or have to go LED.

The third brake light is LED. The factory tail lights are not.
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Old Apr 19, 2013 | 08:25 AM
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Good hunting, but I haven't seen anything out there
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Old Apr 19, 2013 | 08:25 AM
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Originally Posted by 3sACROWD
The horizontal lines are the reflectors that are integrated into the tail light. Cars are required to have a certain level of reflectivity when the car is parked with no lights on. GM chose to integrate the reflectors vs having a separate one mounted on the car. Unfortunately there aren't too many options out there for different tail lights. You're either stuck with the stock tail lights or have to go LED.

The third brake light is LED. The factory tail lights are not.
That's the primary reason why black out kits are illegal because they block the reflectors and the car cannot be seen if parked on the side of the road at night.

The Halo LED tail lights have reflectors built in as well so they are DOT compliant.

I agree that there aren't too many options, however at least we have it better than the European C5 owners who are required to install separate red reflectors on the rear fascia in order to be compliant.
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Old Apr 19, 2013 | 08:49 AM
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I think the only not led option are the euro ones which come either red/amber or red/clear. You would need to get a euro harness and you could use either standard bulbs or led bulbs.
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