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help with third brake light

  • Thread starter Thread starter retep69
  • Start date Start date Jul 18, 2011
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retep69

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Jun 26, 2011
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Jul 18, 2011
#1
  • Jul 18, 2011
  • #1
i have a 1981 mustang (fox body) hatch. i added the rear spoiler from a 1989 lx, which has a third brake light in it. my problem is i tried to wire up the light, with no success. my tailight sockets have 3 wires, 1brown, 1green with stripe, and a black wire. i know the black is ground, the green is brake & signals, and the brown is parking lights. when i connect the 3rd. brake light to the green, which is the one for the brake lights, it works when i step on the brake, but when i put my left turn signal on the 3rd brake light blinks to. i know it only does it when the left signal is on, because thats where i connected it to. my car never came with a 3rd brake from the factory. so how do i get it to work properly? do the later ones have some sort of relay or something im missing. thanks in advance for the help.
 

ID89GT

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May 26, 2008
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Jul 18, 2011
#2
  • Jul 18, 2011
  • #2
Usually the third brake light is wired seperate of the rear lights, that's the whole point of having a third brake light. Say if something were to happen with the wiring for the tail lights, you would still have the functioning brake light for safety.
 
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retep69

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#3
  • Jul 18, 2011
  • #3
that makes sense. so i would have to wire it seperate, using the existing brake light switch? or do i have to put a seperate switch? thanks again for your advice
 

ID89GT

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May 26, 2008
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Jul 18, 2011
#4
  • Jul 18, 2011
  • #4
Technically that is how you should do it. I would splice it somewhere off the body harness, maybe look at a wiring diagram to see where it is spliced from factory on a newer Mustang that comes with a 3rd brake light from factory and try to copy it as much as possible.
 
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retep69

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#5
  • Jul 19, 2011
  • #5
thanks for the info., much appreciated
 

wythors

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#6
  • Jul 19, 2011
  • #6
ID89GT said:
Usually the third brake light is wired seperate of the rear lights, that's the whole point of having a third brake light. Say if something were to happen with the wiring for the tail lights, you would still have the functioning brake light for safety.
Click to expand...

Actually, the whole point of the third brake light is that, starting with the 1986 model year, the NHTSA mandated that every vehicle must have a "center high mount stop lamp", or CHMSL, to decrease the likelyhood of a rear end crash, due to the following driver not seeing the lower brake lights.
 
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retep69

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Jul 20, 2011
#7
  • Jul 20, 2011
  • #7
does anyone have or know where i can get a wiring diagram, so i could figure out how to connect the third brake light? thanks in advance for the help
 

Saleen0679

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Apr 14, 2005
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Yakima, WA
Jul 20, 2011
#8
  • Jul 20, 2011
  • #8
Main circuit comes straight off of the brake light switch.

 

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retep69

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#9
  • Jul 21, 2011
  • #9
thank you for the diagram, greatly appreciated
 
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