Has anyone replaced the third brake light in the top of the rear window? Any part numbers or instructions on how to do it? Mine went out and I can't seem to find a replacement part or instructions? Thanks for any replies.

 

 

Well that kind of helps. Thanks.

 

I just completed my mod today to fix this 3rd brake light issue. Like a lot of people, my third brake light went out. I couldn't find any assemblies lower than $150, so I decided to do it a DIY way.

I purchased an automotive Red LED light strip off Amazon ($10).

1. I pulled the black rear door trim off, then pulled the tan surrounding plastic trim. Be careful as you get to the tan plastic trim piece, as there are wires clips inside that you need to pull out carefully.

2. Take a phillips head, and remove the two screws holding the light assembly in the trim.

3. I then tested them with the existing circuit from the original OEM brake light assembly (blue=hot, black =ground) to ensure it worked when I pressed the brakes.

4. I then laid out the LED strips on the top and trimmed them to fit (you can freely cut them with scissors).

5. The LED lights have a 3M tape adhesive, but I decided to reinforce the LED's with superglue since the vehicle could be in hot, direct sunlight in the summer. After glued and spliced in, I proceeded to reinstall everything back together.

All in all, this took me about 30mins to complete and $10 to fix.

 

Good Info. Will be tackling this soon in my 06. Thanks.

 

Were you able to buy 1 strip and cut into 3 pieces, or did you have to buy 3 individual strips. Can you provide the Amazon link for these? Thanks

 

my dealer had in stock

 

id lik to buy it to be ready, maybe 2 at that price.

 

This old thread was helpful when I just replaced my '07 H3 third brake light (CHMSL) with the aforementioned instructions/red LED strips. However, I mounted my LEDs inside the housing.

I noticed in some other threads that some people had a hard time removing upper trim the rear/hatch door without breaking it and had to spend $200 bucks to buy a new one. I couldn't find a pic to show the clip locations, so I thought I'd supply one to give a reference for others that will be doing this job in the future. A trim tool pry set is useful (and cheap). Mine came off fairly easily but I moved slowly, was very deliberate and was very careful.

RED arrows show the locations of the metal clips that are the problem -- black arrow shows the plastic (plunger type) clips that are much easier.


And this is what the metal clip looks like close-up:

 

Proper protocol would be to make a new thread and link this old thread. Because we now have a 2 year old thread at top.