- Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:09 pm
#303301
DIY eg inner brake lights.
I've searched this topic before and the few threads I found on it looked like too much work, too much wire, or lacked pictures or info to make me feel confident it was a good method to achieve inner brake lights.
So I decided I would tackle it today and found this method to be easiest and by far the best.
If you like to utilize what you already have, like your additions to the original wire harness work correctly and as if it were OEM, and not have your car look like someone took out a speaker box/amp and left wires everywhere, then this is for you (^_^)
Here's the materials I used and you will most likely need as well:
-eg tail lights. you will need two sockets that use the dim/bright brake light function
-solder gun
-rosin core
-heat shrink
-electrical tape
-18g wire
-zip ties
-WD-40
-wire cutters
-needle nose pliars
-metal hanger
-lighter, I use a lighter to soften/heat wire and slide off the desired amount to be removed with wire cutters. I know that's ghetto, but that's how I've always done it and have never had to worry about breaking wire.
-pocket knife possibly
tail lights originally with brake pressed:
what you will achieve by doing this DIY:
get some eg tail lights. Doesn't matter if they're 2dr/3dr/4dr, as long as the ones you pick have the brake light that gets brighter. (2dr and 4dr all the tail brake lights are ideal for this DIY, the 3dr, however, only the outter will work for this DIY) I happened to have a set of USDM eh3 tails sitting on my shelf.
In this picture you can see that someone has already tapped into these tail lights. ugly.
get the brake light bulb socket and cut it loose from the light harness. Then cut off the correct tab that you won't be able to use when you stick these in the inner tail light socket location.
You want one for each side.
swap the rubber washer to the new sockets.
cut the original inner brake light socket red and black wire off tight up against the socket.
You will use this red and black wire to connect to the new socket red and black wires.
(Drivers side) This thick green/white striped/ bronze dotted wire will be the one you run your 18g wire to.
You will need to run the new wire from the inner tail light to this wire on the inside.
Take the rubber housing for the trunk release cable loose on both sides. get a piece of metal ( I used a hanger) and feed it through. It gets too tight at front entrance to feed any wire through, so you have to negotiate a hole on the inner opening.
tape the end of your new wire to the end of the hanger rod and pull it through the rubber grommet.
WD-40 helps a lot getting the new wire pulled through.
new wire pulled through to new location, everything prepped for soldering.
some of my heat shrink got too hot and shrunk... I had to use some electrical tape, will learn from my mistakes and do better on the next one lol.
a couple zip tires and hooked into the green/white striped/ bronze dotted wire.
I just zip tied it along the trunk release cable.
Now for the Passenger side. take loose the rubber grommet for the tail gate wire harness. You can disconnect it on the inner side from a connector and pull it all the way through to the outside for easy access. Use your metal rod again. This rubber grommet has much more room so no new holes will need to be made on this grommet (^_^)
tape your new wire to the end of the metal rod. pull through.
new wire pulled through tail gate, everything prepped for soldering.
Did a better job this time (^_^) * If you've never soldered before, don't be afraid. All you do is hold your solder gun tip to the bottom side of the bare wire. Hold rosin core against the wire on the top side and when the wire gets hot enough, the rosin core will melt through the wire and you can shape it using your solder gun tip. Just don't burn yourself a few test runs on some junk wire for practice before hand is a good idea if your new to it.
if you've never used heat shrink before it's simple stuff. choose a size that's about twice or three times the size of your wire, stick your wire though it, keeping it away from your soldering area, then when soldered and cooled, slide if over your solder and take a lighter to it, it will shrink up/seal up your work.
plugged in. pay attention to the two tabs when you insert and twist. You don't want to break them off. then you'll have to grab the silicon or glue lol.
on the inside of the tail gate opening, right next to the tail gate harness connector, here's is the green/white striped/ bronze dotted wire you will connect your new wire to.
all wrapped up.
Get some weights or something to hold down your brake pedal, because your going to want to see the awesome results(^_^) Everything is done correctly. And all brake lights light up bright and identical. Booyah!
I've searched this topic before and the few threads I found on it looked like too much work, too much wire, or lacked pictures or info to make me feel confident it was a good method to achieve inner brake lights.
So I decided I would tackle it today and found this method to be easiest and by far the best.
If you like to utilize what you already have, like your additions to the original wire harness work correctly and as if it were OEM, and not have your car look like someone took out a speaker box/amp and left wires everywhere, then this is for you (^_^)
Here's the materials I used and you will most likely need as well:
-eg tail lights. you will need two sockets that use the dim/bright brake light function
-solder gun
-rosin core
-heat shrink
-electrical tape
-18g wire
-zip ties
-WD-40
-wire cutters
-needle nose pliars
-metal hanger
-lighter, I use a lighter to soften/heat wire and slide off the desired amount to be removed with wire cutters. I know that's ghetto, but that's how I've always done it and have never had to worry about breaking wire.
-pocket knife possibly
tail lights originally with brake pressed:
what you will achieve by doing this DIY:
get some eg tail lights. Doesn't matter if they're 2dr/3dr/4dr, as long as the ones you pick have the brake light that gets brighter. (2dr and 4dr all the tail brake lights are ideal for this DIY, the 3dr, however, only the outter will work for this DIY) I happened to have a set of USDM eh3 tails sitting on my shelf.
In this picture you can see that someone has already tapped into these tail lights. ugly.
get the brake light bulb socket and cut it loose from the light harness. Then cut off the correct tab that you won't be able to use when you stick these in the inner tail light socket location.
You want one for each side.
swap the rubber washer to the new sockets.
cut the original inner brake light socket red and black wire off tight up against the socket.
You will use this red and black wire to connect to the new socket red and black wires.
(Drivers side) This thick green/white striped/ bronze dotted wire will be the one you run your 18g wire to.
You will need to run the new wire from the inner tail light to this wire on the inside.
Take the rubber housing for the trunk release cable loose on both sides. get a piece of metal ( I used a hanger) and feed it through. It gets too tight at front entrance to feed any wire through, so you have to negotiate a hole on the inner opening.
tape the end of your new wire to the end of the hanger rod and pull it through the rubber grommet.
WD-40 helps a lot getting the new wire pulled through.
new wire pulled through to new location, everything prepped for soldering.
some of my heat shrink got too hot and shrunk... I had to use some electrical tape, will learn from my mistakes and do better on the next one lol.
a couple zip tires and hooked into the green/white striped/ bronze dotted wire.
I just zip tied it along the trunk release cable.
Now for the Passenger side. take loose the rubber grommet for the tail gate wire harness. You can disconnect it on the inner side from a connector and pull it all the way through to the outside for easy access. Use your metal rod again. This rubber grommet has much more room so no new holes will need to be made on this grommet (^_^)
tape your new wire to the end of the metal rod. pull through.
new wire pulled through tail gate, everything prepped for soldering.
Did a better job this time (^_^) * If you've never soldered before, don't be afraid. All you do is hold your solder gun tip to the bottom side of the bare wire. Hold rosin core against the wire on the top side and when the wire gets hot enough, the rosin core will melt through the wire and you can shape it using your solder gun tip. Just don't burn yourself a few test runs on some junk wire for practice before hand is a good idea if your new to it.
if you've never used heat shrink before it's simple stuff. choose a size that's about twice or three times the size of your wire, stick your wire though it, keeping it away from your soldering area, then when soldered and cooled, slide if over your solder and take a lighter to it, it will shrink up/seal up your work.
plugged in. pay attention to the two tabs when you insert and twist. You don't want to break them off. then you'll have to grab the silicon or glue lol.
on the inside of the tail gate opening, right next to the tail gate harness connector, here's is the green/white striped/ bronze dotted wire you will connect your new wire to.
all wrapped up.
Get some weights or something to hold down your brake pedal, because your going to want to see the awesome results(^_^) Everything is done correctly. And all brake lights light up bright and identical. Booyah!
