rear light cluster

anyone know what the deal is with the red portion of the light cluster that is on the trunk lid. I thought they were tail lights, but then they didn't come on with the headlights on. So I thought they were brake lights. And they don't come on with the brake pressed either..

So I thought mine were probably bad or a connector was loose/ disconnected somewhere.. Then I noticed that they don't come on for other legacies that I see on the road either

Saw an older model OB (looked like a pre 2015 facelift) on the road today and that section of lights were on with the headlights. All the other makes that had similar tail light sections with part of it on the trunk lid have them come on as tail lights...

Are there LEDs in there, is there a trick to when they turn on? Can you throw a bulb in there?

anyone know what the deal is with the red portion of the light cluster that is on the trunk lid ... Are there LEDs in there ...?

Nope. Reflectors only.

Thanks!

Dang! All those beautiful reflectors in there. They should have at least put LEDs in there so we could have wired up ourselves.

Would be nice to be able to stick a bulb or a small LED strip in there. didn't have enough time this evening to pull the whole thing apart to see what it looked like. appears that I'll need to remove the screws holding the trim piece around the license plate lights to access the inner clip holding that light assembly.

There was an empty two pin socket that had a black and a brown wire. It wasn't for additional reverse lights. Wondering if its the brake light.

Would be nice to be able to stick a bulb or a small LED strip in there. didn't have enough time this evening to pull the whole thing apart to see what it looked like. appears that I'll need to remove the screws holding the trim piece around the license plate lights to access the inner clip holding that light assembly.

 

There was an empty two pin socket that had a black and a brown wire. It wasn't for additional reverse lights. Wondering if its the brake light.

IIRC, I believe that's for a 3rd brake light.

IIRC, I believe that's for a 3rd brake light.

Yep. Checked today, it goes high with the brake lights. Guess it is to wire up the spoiler integrated 4th stop light.

Pulled everything apart. There are no openings to put LEDs in but you could definitely stick a LED light strip and drill holes into the reflector where the LEDs align. However that part of the housing is outside where the weather seal is.

I've never pulled open a light assembly neither do I have the tools to seal it back, so I didn't want to start drilling holes and mess up the whole thing. But it could be a good project for anyone into that kinda thing.

This is my project for this weekend to add LED on that housing to make it useful

I'd love to see how it turns out and whats involved.

This is the quad brake light mod we did on the 5th Gens to get quad brake lights. But we already had the running lights in the trunk section and our reverse light is below the corner lights.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/quad-brake-light-mod-brake-tail-lights-trunk-lid-145743.html?t=145743&highlight=quad+brake+light

After much thought, and not really liking that cluster just being blank, I decided that the easiest way was to throw in some red LED strips into the reverse light reflector and wire it up to ACC so they stay on all the time (ideally I would have tapped into the DRL circuit but I didn't want to deal with going through the front firewall). Pretty happy with how it turned out.

The glue on the LED strips was crappy and the cold weather outside didn't help, so I'll need to open it up again and fix that on one of them warm days and will be adding some pigtail connectors on each end so the cluster can be removed easily.

You can't really tell from the pics, but the white reverse light is still pretty bright with these ON.

After much thought, and not really liking that cluster just being blank, I decided that the easiest way was to throw in some red LED strips into the reverse light reflector and wire it up to ACC so they stay on all the time (ideally I would have tapped into the DRL circuit but I didn't want to deal with going through the front firewall). Pretty happy with how it turned out.

The glue on the LED strips was crappy and the cold weather outside didn't help, so I'll need to open it up again and fix that on one of them warm days and will be adding some pigtail connectors on each end so the cluster can be removed easily.

 

You can't really tell from the pics, but the white reverse light is still pretty bright with these ON.

You're gonna confused the shit out of some people with having red light always coming from the back of your vehicle. People may think you're braking or not be able to tell when you're applying the brakes vs when you're not. You're also not going to be able to separate the light to make changes and ever get it back together properly because it's welded, not glued.

You're gonna confused the shit out of some people with having red light always coming from the back of your vehicle. People may think you're braking or not be able to tell when you're applying the brakes vs when you're not. You're also not going to be able to separate the light to make changes and ever get it back together properly because it's welded, not glued.

meh, not that bright and not tied into the third brake light, looks more like a parking light.

That said, there is a current flowing to the existing brake lights when the light switch is on (half power to make them partially lit, full power when you put on the brakes).

Maybe tap one of those existing parking wires to power a relay, then your AC to the relay, then a wire from the relay to your new LED's.

That is safer than powering them directly off the lights, though LED draw is so low that would probably also work.

Just sayin', a much better way than always on with AC, or trying to tap DRL's.

You're gonna confused the shit out of some people with having red light always coming from the back of your vehicle.

Not to mention the issue of legality.

Not to mention the issue of legality.

That's why they should be wired to the position lights.

But it should be OK to also have a feed to them through the DRL. Use some diodes to make sure that there aren't any back-current if you feed them from both position lights and DRL.

You're gonna confused the shit out of some people with having red light always coming from the back of your vehicle. People may think you're braking or not be able to tell when you're applying the brakes vs when you're not. You're also not going to be able to separate the light to make changes and ever get it back together properly because it's welded, not glued.

I think its less confusing than the red turn signal lights on most other cars these days. just saying.

They are not very bright, and the LEDs point to the reflector, so they fill the reflector vs throwing light straight to the back.

As for legality, you can't have white, color (other than red) or pattern flashing (unless authorized). Don't think there is anything against constant red light.

If having red lights on the back was illegal, then your tail lights are illegal as well..

I think its less confusing than the red turn signal lights on most other cars these days. just saying.

 

They are not very bright, and the LEDs point to the reflector, so they fill the reflector vs throwing light straight to the back.

 

As for legality, you can't have white, color (other than red) or pattern flashing (unless authorized). Don't think there is anything against constant red light.

If having red lights on the back was illegal, then your tail lights are illegal as well..

If the LEDs point to the reflector, then the reflector is throwing light out through the lens... That's how reflectors work.

Red turn signals are, in my opinion, less confusing than what you are doing. With a red turn signal, you still have the other side solidly illuminated along with the third brake light illuminated when braking/stopped with the turn signal flashing. It may be easier to tell that a car is braking with the turn signal flashing if it uses an amber signal, but it's legal in the US.

Regardless of whether it's legal or not at the federal level, it could very well be illegal at the state level. I believe some states have laws preventing modification of vehicles from the factory condition.

At the end of the day, I still think it's a really stupid idea.