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Dim brake light - 2005 Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by fulltlt, Sep 16, 2013.

  1. fulltlt

    fulltlt Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
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    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    II
    So I have the dim brake light problem on the passenger side only. I took the whole assembly out to check it out.
    I removed the circuit board at the bottom and checked all of the components on it with a multimeter. Everything checked out perfectly with the components on the circuit board. It's just a bunch of resistors connected in series and a diode. All are ok. I put everything back together and the brake LED's are still dim. Of course nothing changed. All of the LED's are lighting up. They are all just dim. The circuit board is being fed with 12 volts. So does anyone have any technical explanation of why this happens?

    What a dumb idea it was to make LED brake lights that can't be fixed or replaced without replacing the whole taillight assembly.
     
    #1 fulltlt, Sep 16, 2013
  2. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2010
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    Location:
    Herefordshire England
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Check out the ground cable for the lights, it is in the center of the trunk below the tailgate latch. To test the stop lamp leds try putting a 12 volt supply direct to the stop lamp connector (not the led's) if they are still dim the only cure is a new complete light unit. The light units are different from 2006 on.

    John (Britprius)
     
    #2 Britprius, Sep 16, 2013
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