Third brake light out?

[Longhorn248]

So I've been informed that my third brake light in the back window doesn't light up when I apply the brakes. After seeing it for myself, unfortunately it was true. The regular brake lights work fine. Could this be a fuse issue? Or should I be heading to the dealership?

[Draco-REX]

Check to make sure it's fully plugged in. The plug is in the trunk, under the light.

[ahausheer]

Check the fuse and the connection, however you should let the dealer or Subaru of America know so they can record the issue and possibly prevent future problems.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Draco-REX

Check to make sure it's fully plugged in. The plug is in the trunk, under the light.

tint shop left mine unplugged.. oops.

[Opie]

His looks tinted too, I'll bet it's unplugged...

[Kwaziekeller]

I had the same thing happen to mine, popped the top part of the 3rd brake light off and was fiddling with it, looks like 2 LED's are burnt out and they're wired in a series. I can get 2 of them to work by completing the circuit around the 2 burnt out ones, but I will be going to the dealer soon, and do not want to modify it so it half works.

[Draco-REX]

Originally Posted by Kwaziekeller

I had the same thing happen to mine, popped the top part of the 3rd brake light off and was fiddling with it, looks like 2 LED's are burnt out and they're wired in a series. I can get 2 of them to work by completing the circuit around the 2 burnt out ones, but I will be going to the dealer soon, and do not want to modify it so it half works.

Yup! Warranty that. Problems like this need to be warrantied so they can find trends and take care of them if needed. I'll back up to a storefront and make sure mine are 100%.

[Kwaziekeller]

Oh I know... I bought an "extended warranty" of sorts through their college grad/military programs, so it's definitely covered (would be w/o the extra stuff!). I'm really surprised... LED's don't really burn out often. Clearly visible that they are burnt out. Hoping I'm an isolated incident! (bad ground? circuit crossover (it's got a few resistors in there, and if it somehow shorted and bypassed those I do not think it would work out well).

[Longhorn248]

The connectors on mine are all hooked up properly. I'm guessing I have the same burnt out LED problem which is surprising. I'll try and get it into a dealership this weekend maybe. When I tried last weekend the service department was all booked up and there weren't any techs trained on the BRZ available.

[Nate219BRZ]

mine only turns on when i push the brakes...Is it soposed to low glow like the normal taillights?

[Longhorn248]

Originally Posted by Nate219BRZ

mine only turns on when i push the brakes...Is it soposed to low glow like the normal taillights?

No yours is working fine. The third brake light only comes on when the brakes are applied. (Or at least it should if it's working correctly)

[Kwaziekeller]

It's pretty easy to pop the top portion of the 3rd brake light assembly off, so if you're bored and want to see if your LED's are burned out too, it should only take a few seconds...

Disconnect the 3rd brake light plug in the trunk.
Push up on one of the corners of the assembly, just above the "seam" of the 2 plastic pieces on the "front" (towards the front of the car). There are 2 snaps (one in each corner) that will pop apart.
Once you pop one corner, pop the other.
You'll have to lift the "front" portion slightly and pull it towards the front of the car, being careful with the wires etc.
The "rear" part of the top half of the assembly has two tabs that slide into the bottom half, so putting it back together can be a little tricky, but just reverse the steps.

Once you get it apart, look @ the LED's... my "burned out" ones are kind of yellow-ish, like a bronze color inside the bulb. The 2 that are burned out on my car are the 2 on the driver's side of the car (left). I'll post up some pics of how to get it apart if needed, it's pretty straightforward/simple tho.

I have an appointment with my dealership on Friday to get it serviced. I've got a feeling they will just order a new top half of the 3rd brake light assembly tho.

[Extreme86]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

The connectors on mine are all hooked up properly. I'm guessing I have the same burnt out LED problem which is surprising. I'll try and get it into a dealership this weekend maybe. When I tried last weekend the service department was all booked up and there weren't any techs trained on the BRZ available.

If there is voltage at the connector when brakes are applied the led board is likely bad. Unless, there is an issue in wiring from the connector to the LED circuit board.

1. LEDs have a polarity so if tint ppl unplugged the brake light and then reversed the connection (if that is possible with the type of connector used) when reconnecting, that might be causing the problem.

2. If, in the process of tinting, something was pulled or tugged; might be a short in the wire lead breaking the electrical connection to the LEDs.

In any event, it's nice to have a warranty. It should be easy to diagnose when it gets looked at by a trained tech! Hopefully it won't take as long to order a part than it does to order the dang car!!!!!

[Kwaziekeller]

I go to the dealership this afternoon to have it looked at. More than likely they will order a new upper portion of the brake light assembly, because I don't see them tearing it apart and putting new LED's in, so I'll begin the process of having it fixed.

To answer your questions...

Yes there is voltage supplied to the board. I confirmed this by bypassing the burned out bulbs and completing the circuit, but there are many other ways to test this (test lights, volt-meters, multi-meters etc).

The connector for the 3rd brake light is designed so it cannot be plugged in incorrectly. Only way to reverse polarity would be to switch the wires inside the connector or where they attach to the LED board (slide/spade style terminals that are soldered on).

It would be very easy to tug or pull the wires, especially if you forget to unplug the connector first. Also, the LED board is held into the assembly with some small plastic welds, and the wires are not held in place by anything, so snagging them on something could break some of these plastic welds.

Yes, warranties are nice. It's one of the reasons I bought the car. My previous car was getting close to 6 years old, and had 90k+ miles. I never had a problem with the car, but I wanted something new because it's one less thing to worry about.

Anywho, I'll let you guys know what the end result is... and yes, I hope waiting for the part is not as long of a wait as waiting for the car. I didn't have to wait very long, but I can imagine how frustrating it can be to wait. Extreme86, 3 months and no car? Wow... I'd be making some phone calls and trying to find one somewhere! lol