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spoiler L.E.D. stop lamps inop, why??

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by cnschult, Nov 1, 2011.

  1. cnschult

    cnschult Active Member

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    2005 Prius
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    2 problems with my tailgate:

    upper defroster not working
    &
    L.E.D. center stop lamp not working.

    upper defroster was easy, a pad was loose, paid a glass shop ten bucks to use silver conductive epoxy to reattach it. I was hoping the center stop lamp shared a ground with the defroster wiring and that repairing one would fix the circuit but alas the defroster is fixed but the stop lamp is not working.

    i've done lots of searched and can only find people having trouble with left or right tail light assemblies, not the center one, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
     
    #1 cnschult, Nov 1, 2011
  2. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    The center brake light can be accessed by removing the plastic covet on the hatch. Firmly pull it towards you and it will pop off. You can see the brake light assembly. Follow the wires down to the connector. Find a friend or a brick and place either on the brake pedal and take your voltmeter and see if you are getting 12 volts at the connector.
    If, NO, then switch meter to ohms measurement and remove brick or friend from brake pedal and with ohm meter find a good ground point, the 12v battery minus post would be perfect, attach 1 lead to MINUS post, or KNOWN GOOD GROUND POINT, and the other to either pin of the connector. One side should show no continuity or open, the other should show a dead short, if so the LED ground in good. If you put the brick or friend back on the brake pedal you should find +12 volts on the other pin,
    If NO You have to look further upstream. Follow the wiring back to next connector, check for volts there.
    If NO Then brake light switch is suspect.
    If you do have voltage at the connector, and the LED side connector is seated securely and still no light, LED bulb is probably bad, time to buy a new one.
    This is a simple fix!
     
    #2 KK6PD, Nov 1, 2011
  3. cnschult

    cnschult Active Member

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    LED bulb is probably bad?? I thought those last thousands of hours?? are LED assemblies in series or in parallel?? if one fail does the whole assembly fail or do the rest soldier on w/o the broken one??
     
    #3 cnschult, Nov 2, 2011
  4. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    Do not get sucked in that LED's last forever.....they can, and do fail. Some LED arrays are in series, so if 1 LED goes bad , the rest will cease to work, Parallel is different, however NEVER take it for granted LED's are unbreakable!
    I gave a simple check list that I myself would use in I had the same problem. A inexpensive Volt Ohm Meter will enable the OP to troubleshoot the problem, or you could drop by Toyota, they will happily do exactly the same thing, then charge you HUNDREDS to fix it. :D
     
    #4 KK6PD, Nov 2, 2011
  5. cnschult

    cnschult Active Member

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    being able to take a questionable part out of one car and test it on the other is the upside of owning 2 prius' <----- my grade school grammar is fuzzy, I think that's the proper way to pluralize prius.

    the upper inner tailgate trim is held on by 3 pink inserts, I'm missing one. Does anyone know what these are called or an expanded diagram so I can get the part number so I can order one from the parts dept? thanks
     
    #5 cnschult, Nov 5, 2011
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