sirdano

[QUOTE=WetMountainMan;1597618121]Has anyone got this mod and had any problems with the cops? I jumped the gun before checking the legality and bought the parts, now I'm a little reluctant to use them.
It seems any "non-steady" brake/stop light is illegal. I found this and have found no exceptions.

Section S5.5.10 of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS)
I don't think the third brake light counts in that. I have had this installed over two years in Texas with cops behind me and passed state inspection. I have read so new cars come this why.

Again only legal on third light not the others

mrlmd

Learning curve - I just did this and believe I hooked it up correctly - IN to the module coming from the light feed, OUT going to the third brake light. soldered red to red, black to black, covered with shrink wrap, hooked it up, the third upper middle brake light does not flash, just is a steady light like the rest of them. Any suggestions?
Could I have a defective module or do I hook it up the other way around?

WetMountainMan

You are not alone. I've done it twice with two different flasher modules and I get NO light at the third brake light, so I just gave up.

Ed Ramberger

Bought mine here - direct plug and play - very reasonable - works awesome.

http://www.webelectricproducts.com/products.htm

Learning_Curve

mrlmd

I tested the polarity of the plug after I connected it to the car and the red wire is positive (connected to the black wire in the car's wiring harness leading to the light, white is ground or negative) and I made the connections correctly. I may have gotten a bad unit because when I contacted the vendor, all he told me was that he issued me a refund, confirmed by Amazon. I looked on eBay just for the heck of it and these units sell for as little as $1.88 with included free shipping from China (how can they even do that?) if you want to wait a few weeks to get it, but I found another site offering 2 of them for less than what I paid for one on Amazon, and will get it in a few days, so I'm going to try this again. The light lights up but right now does not flash and if the replacement unit also doesn't work, I may try to switch the polarity of the unit. Will let you know what happens,

Tsumi

The halo LED brake lights on my Corvette are so damn bright the third brake light is barely noticeable. I can look in my mirror at night and almost see the person stopped behind me because of how much light the brake lights throw out.

jdmvette

mrlmd

OK, so now solve this.
The wiring harness and module I hooked up lights the third upper brake light up continuously, no flashing.
If I connect it to another 12V source in the house (a plug-in 12 V adapter), to a 6 LED light bar, it flashes as it's supposed to.
The polarity of the wiring in my harness is correct as LED lights won't light up if the polarity is reversed, so my wiring is not a problem.
It still won't flash in the car with the engine running or not, even with 14,2-14.5 V on the DIC.
So why won't my third brake light flash?
If it works on another light bar, why won't it work on the car? Is there anything about the resistance of these lights or does the module just pulse as long as voltage to it is applied? Why should reversing any polarity accomplish anything? What is different about the LED third brakelight or another flasher?
Learning Curve - did you ever get yours to work?

mrlmd

Anybody see my previous post and have any clue why this doesn't work in my car but works on another LED light bar in my house?
Just bumping this up for any suggestions,

LannyL81

mrlmd: just to be 100% here....the module is connected between the car's wiring and the 3rd brake light...right? Such that if the wires connected to the module's IN are disconnected the 3rd brake light does not illuminate....right?
If both ?'s are "yes" then I would say you have a defective module.
I have two of these installed into two cars and have been there for 3+ years now....and in the Tucson heat and both are working just fine. So even though the modules are quite cheap, they seem to last.
I bought three at one time, and have not put the one on the Corvette as the 3rd brake lite in my Corvette is not an LED. I wanted to find an LED replacement that was also a right angle but have not found one....have not looked all that much either.

Tsumi

All C5 Corvette 3rd brake lights are LED, whether stock or aftermarket.

LannyL81

Oh really..... the previous owner must have replaced it with a incandescent bulb as I know it is not an LED.
I did a quick look at RockAuto and they do not even have a replacement for the 3rd brake light that I saw.
Guess I need to go looking..................

Figured it out....I was remembering the 3rd brake light from my '96......duh.....
I have not even looked at the one in the current 2004.

mrlmd

I do not know how I can explain this any clearer.
The module is in line with the feed to the third brake light, polarity is correct, the car's brake light illuminates but does not flash as advertised.
That same feed line connected to another LED 6 light bar does flash correctly. So how is the flasher module defective?

LannyL81

It could be that the 3rd brake light is drawing too much current for the module to handle so it just passes it; which means it could be either the module or the 3rd brake light, more likely the module though. It is possible that somehow the 3rd brake light could be drawing too much current due to an internal short of one of the LEDs....
I guess you could measure the current difference between the 3rd brake light and this other 6 LED light bar. I do not know what the module's current limit is, other than it will only work with LEDs and not incandescent bulbs due to the much larger current draw.

I agree that you have it correctly connected.
Waiting to see what happens with the new modules.

mrlmd

I don't believe in belaboring this thread forever.but I do like to solve problems, and my saga continues, looking for answers.
The old harness I had previously made up out of the parts listed in the OP's first post lit up my upper brake light but it would not flash, although it did flash another 6 LED light bar when hooked to an external 12V power source or to the wiring in the car. I got another 2 flashers from a different vendor and they are about a third smaller in size but have the same GS-100A Strobe Controller For LED Stoplight logo printed on the side, with In and Out, R +. B - printed out, same as the original. Before hooking one into my harness, I checked it out in my house with my LED light bar and it flashed as advertised. Then I cut out the original flasher from my harness, soldered in a new one, covered the connections with shrink wrap as before, and put it into the car. Now the brake light fails to light up at all, no light, no flash, no nothing. Hooking the car's stock wire into the brake light, it works fine, but with my harness and new flasher module - nothing, dead. ff I put my light bar on the harness, it flashes fine. If I measure the voltage coming out of the car's feed to that light, it's 13.5 +V with the engine on, but out of the flasher end of the harness, on the other side of the flasher where it plugs into the brake light, it reads 2.8V. I have no idea if that's normal or not but If I bring it into the house and hook up the harness to my 12V adapter, it reads full voltage and it works fine. I thought maybe there was a poor connection between the pins in my car's wiring feed and the small sockets in the input female end of the harness, so I very slightly tightened up the sockets by bending then closed a little with a tiny screwdriver to make a tighter fit. That did nothing, still no light, and again only 2,8 V measured on the brake light end of the harness while plugged into the car. So I have no clue why my LED light bar flashes but the car's brake light is non functional. There must be a different current draw for these lights and flashers to work or I still have a dirty connection in my circuit. My solder joints are beautiful, there is no resistance though the black Neg wires through the harness and flasher, they are just a pass through to ground, and I have no idea what the resistance is supposed to be through the red positive wires going through the flasher.
So for now I just reconnected my original feed to the brake light and it again works, all the bulbs light up as before, but I am frustrated as I can't get it to flash without pumping the pedal.
Suggestions are welcome, except telling me to spend $50-80 on something else with no guarantee that will work either.

P.S. - These things are rated for 6-24V, 2 Amps, so I can't imagine any of them got burnt out or damaged in any way.

LannyL81

Is the 2.8V reading with the brake pedal down or up?

mrlmd

I'll have to check that again, tomorrow.
In the house connected to my adapter it reads the same voltage the adapter puts out.

bc6152

I'll bet that half of these flasher units are junk. I just spent about an hour installing this part with the temp sensor plug adapter I got from Amazon. Everything wired correctly and securely and NADA. No LED brake light after wiring in the $8.00 flasher and the $18.00 cable from Amazon. Plus, what a PITA to fish the plugs. I did find that it was the easiest by removing the rear license plate, mounting plate, and backup bulbs. I then removed the new harness and plugged the factory one back in. LED brake light lit as normal... Done with this...

My hat is off to you mrlmd for your determination. Can't wait to see the resolution to this one.

mrlmd

Success!! Persistence and perseverance pays off if you are stubborn enough to want to find a solution to a problem. And many times it's something stupid, plain, and obvious you overlooked.

Rechecking the polarity of the car's feed to the third brakelight, the white wire to the connector is positive and the black is negative. The problem is that the colors of the wires in the harness, red and black, are reversed as the connector fits together - the white wire in the feed connects to the black wire in the harness and the black feed wire connects to the red in the harness. That means you have been mislead - That makes your connections to the flasher unit reversed, so it will not function. The solution is to take the flasher connections you made, red to red, black to black, apart, and to reverse them, red to black, black to red in the middle of the harness. Then when you connect it up to the brakelight it flashes as advertised. Did anyone follow that? When you splice in the flasher unit, just reverse the wiring colors as you assemble it and it should work fine.
Now, after taking this apart 4 or 5 times and re-soldering and heat shrinking the connections 3 times, and putting it back together and seeing it work, I'm happy.

And BTW, the overall easiest way to get to any of the wiring back in there is to remove the 4 torx screws and take off the license plate and backiup light frame. There's plenty of room to get your hand and arm in there to reach anything you want and you do not have to disconnect the backup light, the whole thing just hangs there out of the way. That's how I got to the reverse wiring to hook up my rearview camera.