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Third brake light keeps breaking

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by jishi, Sep 20, 2022.

  1. jishi

    jishi Junior Member

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    The third brake light broke on my car e, so I replaced it with a used one. I measured 12V coming on the connector, and the replacement worked intially (but I recall that I thought it lit up pretty dimmed).

    After a day or two I noticed that it again didn't work. I guess it could have been a dud, but these are LEDs and should last indefinitely, so os there some other circuitry that could be broken that causes it to eat third brake lights?
     
  2. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    Even LED’s wont last forever. I had to replace third brakelight when car was 11years old. I ordered and installed OEM module and have not had issues ever since
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Can you crack apart the plastic and just lay an LED stripping there or something then I've seen other LED doodads that can glue right under the factory one you can't even tell they're their practically that may be an alternative too I don't know what the factory wouldn't cost but I imagine that site that they use it begins with an A I think I don't know. It ought to be pretty cheap and the aftermarket may have something I don't know
     
  4. jishi

    jishi Junior Member

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    I don't think it's possible without breaking it completely. It seems to be fused together as one piece.

    I don't mind buying a new one if that's the problem, but they are fairly expensive so if the problem is elsewhere and the new one will give up within the day, I will be very unhappy...
     
  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Look at the site the guys are posting on here all the time not the Toyota dealer but I think it begins with an A you'll see Mendel in the Gen 3 form posting parts for people all the time from this site It looks like they deeply discount the dealer that's all I'm saying and if you were to take yours off with the two screws holding it to the spoiler and put 12 volts directly to it does it light up if no then I would say it's dead or whatever's happened I wouldn't think anything further down the car would be the problem it's an LED so I don't think there's a bunch of relays and a whole lot of silliness as the amp draw of this thing listen would be basically nothing so there doesn't need to be any protections in the circuit per se so other than the brake light switch probably be about it or power's not going to the brake light switch because of the fuse and that would pretty much be it. As I don't think much else in the circuit. So I would say take it off put it to 12 volts with alligator clips but doesn't work reverse them just for the heck of it still doesn't work Chuck it if it's truly sonic welded together then you're probably not going to get it apart and you'd be at the mercy of another one but I've seen like I said before I've seen some new ones that literally stick on with that 3M gray tape they are so thin you can almost lay them on the edge of your spoiler and you're good The problem is the wiring is not in the middle it's coming out of one end but you can buy a little short ones that are only about 6/8 in long that would fit in the space in the cutout and it's so thin you can almost lay it on the edge of the cutout that faces outward to the rear and these things are bright
     
  6. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    I ordered from Magengines. 78usd including freight. Toyota OEM brakelight. The A company is Amayama. I ordered parts for my Honda from there.