Custom Third Brake Light Install (incl. Pics)
 

Hey guys! So I'm finally getting around to doing this write up of my third brake light replacement.

As some of you bass heads may have experienced, the stock third brake light rattles like a bitch when your lovely bass driven music kicks in. It also looks pretty tacky in your rearview and doesn't look like it belongs there (imo). So I decided to remove the sucker completely and put a new brake light somewhere a little more hidden. Now this is only a prototype. The brake light that I used cost me $30 from Repco and is not great looking. I'll be hunting for better brake lights in the future. Anyway, there are a bunch of pictures to follow and I'll do my best to describe the process.

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The first step was to remove the stock brake light. You have to unclip the two clips (top 2 circles) first and then slide it out towards the front of the car. You can see the 2 slits circled in the above photo.

Next I needed to remove the trim from the C-Pillar. My point of attack was this piece of trim.

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I've circled where the clips are behind the panel. I recommend going for the top left one first (this is the passenger side of the car). Then the 4 at the bottom and finally the remaining one. Also notice the 2 slits that sit behind the roof trim. They actually bend quite a bit, but still be careful with these.

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The panel will be held up by the blue straps. This got pretty annoying when I went to war with the next panel (and boy, what a war it was...)

Next I took out the panel in the very back corner of the car. This guy was a motherfucker!!! You need to unscrew the bolt holding this in place first. (Sorry no picture.)

Then unclip these two white clips. Also notice the slit at the top of the picture below that fits into the panel under this one.

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Best to pull the lower panel as far as you can towards you and try and get this little guy out. The clips are VERY easy to lose, as they can unclip from the panel and fall into the car's abyss. As you can see, I lost a clip.

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** Side story (feel free to skip) **
So from where I stood, this clip was lost forever. I went to Toyota to order a new one and they told me that it would take 2-3 weeks to get a new clip in!! I went to Subaru instead (notice the logo on the panel above). The Parts Manager there was very helpful and managed to get my clips (I ordered 3 just in case) the next day. As I was trying to put this panel back on, which was actually harder than taking it off, I lost another bloody clip!! Just out of sheer hope, I reached around the panel under this little one and miraculously found the clip sitting between the panel and the cloth stuff. Hooray! Then I thought, maybe the first one is there too. And sure as shit, there it was! So now I have 3 spare clips for anyone if they lose theirs. ;)
** End side story **

Ok, back on task! Once I removed both sides, the pacel shelf came out next. See the 4 circled clips and one slit in the middle. Once uncliped, pull the shelf towards the front of the car.

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Some shots of the pacel tray...

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As you may know, the third brake light mount is actually attached to the parcel shelf. They did this with heat steaks... ><

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There's no easy way to remove these. Just get your trusty side cutters and hack away until the mount snaps off.

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That's better! Looks much cleaner.

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Going back a few pictures, you can see that black panel that holds the clips was held in place by the heat steaks we just cut off. Now, the only thing holding it in place is a bit of glue. This is not ideal. I decided to bolt this in place to be a bit safe. So any place there used to be a heat steak, there is now a bolt (and washers). I painted the bolts black to match the trim. I'm still looking for something to fill the big hole.

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Ok! Now we can start installing the new brake light. Here he is. $30 from Repco

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It's soldering time! Trust me, I'm an engineer.

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I cut the connector off the stock light and slid the plastic tube off. Then I soldered the connector onto the new light with plastic tube also attached.

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Here's the test run. Looks good!

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I decided that this was the best place to put it. It's out of the way and barely visible from the rearview. 3M doublesided tape is used to keep it in place. If you have your window tinted, make sure to avoid the tint!

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I ran the cable up around the roof trim, into the C-Pillar and through the parcel tray, back to the original connection.

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Put the panels back on (much easier said than done), and I was pretty much done!

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The light ended up pointing down as a small angle and shining way too much light onto the seats. To counter this, I put black electrical tape on the lower half of the light. In future, I plan to have the light pointed only out, and not down.

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Final result!

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I'm looking for suggestion on better lights. I'm after a similar look to the Commodore SV6 where it's just a single row of individual LEDs. (Couldn't find a photo)

Any other criticisms/suggestions/questions are also welcome! =)

Fantastic ! The zzt celica has the same wide & mounted @ the top but outside the vehicle, works better than down low on the parcel shelf where most drivers may struggle to see it. I reckon a wider fatter strip of LED's would be great, say 50% wider for improved safety visibility. But it's great as it is ! Supa job.

Yeah that's heaps nicer !

Wider would look better. I agree. Do you know anywhere I'd be able to buy one?

Looks good. JayCar perhaps?

Sadly they have nothing. This is the first place I looked.

Had a quick look on the net, RS, RPG, not even Philips or Narva make them which I find odd. I've seen some good ones on Prados etc but can't remember which car. I'll keep a look out.

this is what i wanted to do when i get my car tintned as they have to pull all that apart then too.

i like it, it looks better.

too much work for me tho

Haha yea. It took me the good part of my Saturday to do it. As well as a few trips to Bunnings.

Very nice install.
It would look really nice if the LED's were longer imho. Probably starting and ending from each 'indent' on the pagoda roof.

Have you had a look on DealExtreme? Some pretty cheap/good stuff on their site.
http://dx.com/p/2-4w-432lm-red-flash...-152541?item=5

http://dx.com/s/third+brake+light

Hey thanks for this. Now confident I can do this. I think I'll be trying it with a strip of LEDs like people here put on their trucks sometimes. Hoping local autozone (don't know what your parts stores are, but that'd be one here,) has one I can use. Idea for the gaping hole, and what I'd like to attempt. Saw it from someone else, and cant find the thread now, but fill it with foam and sand it flush, then recover the deck in material of choice. I'd like to do a suede but I'm worried about fading, even with the tint, and alcantara makes this simple cheap mod suddenly a bit more pricey. Thanks for the panel pictures though. Big help!

Thanks for the write-up.

I'll be installing one of these in the next week or so. There are several different lengths of that basic idea all over eBay.

Thanks for the thanks. :respekt:
Not sure if it's too late to warn you, but if you are going with an LED strip, make sure the light has something to hit. I tried an LED strip to begin with and you could barely see it in the daytime. You basically need a housing of some sorts so the red light isn't drowned in sunlight.

As for the hole, I've stuck some carpeting underneath to cover it.

Good luck!

Thanks for the link man! This is exactly what I've been looking for. I'll probably upgrade my one now.