Brake light self repairs

My driver side brake light is going out. Only 1 out of 6 leds is acting up. Had an old tail light from when this happened last year so swapped the resistor box, no change plugging into the oem harness. Power is good going out the resistor box. Nothing was lighting up on my old tail light so I cut it open.



Those clear things are the LEDs if you can't tell.





During testing I randomly connected a white LED between spots on the brake light cluster and all light up nice and bright. Connected power from different areas to individual LEDS,reseated connectors and moved where connectors connected. Nothing makes sense on why adding a LED makes them all light up fine. Rulled out a bad controller/resistor box and not a bad wire. It's something with how the LEDs connect in their cluster.


Not feeling a permant fix with what I was doing so I put it away for the night.


This morning the tail light with the 1 LED out is working fine for no reason now. Plan on going to the junk yard in hopes a Prius is still there with the taillight in good condition. $35 from a junk yard with 30 day warranty is livable for a quick fix. Really wish Toyota designed this as a solid removeable piece like i had on my 06 Acura TL. The whole circuit board was able to unscrew out and be replaced. Wonder if the new Prius has this issue?

 

Junk yard was a bust. So I ordered a used one off ebay with 3 month warranty for $60. Thankfully these tail lights are super easy to install. If anyone wants my old ones for parts or modding let me know.

 

Most likely since it likes power in certain spots. Problem is it's hard to reach where the LED is mounted without more cutting but hey I might try that for fun.