I've been really happy so far with this LED 3rd brake light I got from Amazon for $8: 🔴 amzn.to/2fVxq4C Also, the J-B PlasticWeld has held up great! I'll post here if anything changes. 🔴 amzn.to/2vPk0g4
If your old light is still there try reversing your wires. I'll bet the shared wires was the ground and the separate wire is the hot for you third break light.
There was nothing wrong with the original 3rd brake light. You had it wired backwards. The black wire with the white stripe is the positive wire. Those other two wires that are joined together are grounds.
That set of wires with the shared plug is your ground. The dome and third brake light shouldn't share a power source, but they can share a ground with no problem.
I was over at the Safety Inspection station today and got denied due to this exact problem. My Leer Topper brake light not being wired up. (Bummer! - wasted 7 of my hard earned dollars to the State) I asked the mechanic how much they would charge me to hook the thing up? They stated $139.00. I got home, googled up "rigging a camper top light" and your video popped up. My 2001 Rangers "GREEN" wire wasn't hanging and for sure wasn't labeled. At first I connected the positive from my LED light to a "GREEN w/ a RED tracer" line. I wired it up, hit the brakes and was all like HELL Yeah! She's workin' solid! That was until I hit my left turn signal and the brake light started flashing along with it. Ahhhhh, Man!!! Well, I took myself a break, then got back under my truck and due to no "GREEN" wire sticking out. I carefully razor opened the sleeve on the harness. (The bulky part next to a connector). There were quite a few wires bundled up behind that connector. I saw the "GREEN w/Red" wire again. (left brake) Then I splayed them open to look closer for any sign of another "GREEN" wire and BING-OOO! There she was! Smack dab in the middle of the batch. I checked it out and it was the SOLID "GREEN" that you showed us in your video here. I rigged this one up to the toppers brake light and Winner-Winner-Whataburger Dinner! (yes we, the family had some delicious Whataburger for dinner tonight.) ;) Anyway, I propped a piece of wood on the brake pedal and 2nd BINGO!!!! The toppers brake LED lit up like Christmas! Then, I hit my left turn and the topper brake stayed off! (same with the right blinker) Thanks for putting your video out. Saved me a $139.00 dollar bill. Greatly appreciate your video.
Good thing they placed it right in the middle for easy access. 😜 Thanks for sharing how you did it on a 2001 Ranger. I may just have some Whataburger tonight in your honor.
Got a 2004 ranger that I'm trying to do this with I cant find any schematic that makes sense to me I've never done wiring before it's my biggest weak point of DIY work lol any tips that could possibly help me out?
Seems like the two wires which are together ought to be the ground and the single wire should be what you hook the hot wire to. Not an electrician, but I wonder if the brake lights are LED and with DC current, you have to wire them a correctly.
After seeing a few videos, none would show something close to what I have. I saw where you found the green wire, went outside and found it right away. Thanks
I think the two wires joined together was a joint ground…you should have tried the led lights reversed to see if they worked. With a joint ground you can power some and tail seperately.
Yea, I ran into this earlier this year on a Ford Focus and was shocked. I mean here in east Texas only about 20% of the people use turn signals......actually the auto parts stores were sold out of led lights due to this new law. I would drill out the rivets pull the existing fixture and see if the have incandescent bulbs, that's what was on the focus. Otherwise, good job! Reminds me that our camper didn't have running lights last time out.
I get that the more lights you have the better, but shouldn't two brake lights on the back of a vehicle be enough? Maybe GE wasn't selling enough bulbs in Texas so they lobbied to get this law in place to force more bulb sales. lol Yeah, I really thought about drilling the rivets out but I really couldn't see a way to open the dang thing once out. I didn't want to end up breaking it and then being stuck with a hole that I couldn't fill properly with a new light. If this LED ends up not working after a few months, I'll probably try to fix the old one.
Hello from Austin! just wanted to drop a comment and let ya know I appreciate ya for making this video. I failed inspection on my 93 GMC Vandura for this reason. not a car guy or a handy guy but you steered me in the right direction and I found a brake hot line in the hitch hookups. One less thing to worry about, now on to the next headache.
I could while away the hours Conferrin' with the flowers, Consulting with the rain; And my head I'd be a scratchin' While my thoughts are busy hatchin'
I tried to install the same break light on my daihatsu cuore rear wind screen. I peeled wires of car holder a bit and attached third light black wire to cars negative and red wire to cars positive in the holder. now what happens when cars headlights are ON the third break light doesn't work at all but when headlights are OFF third break light works with the break. I didn't grounded any of the wire rather attached them with holders wiring. do you know why this is happening
Wish someone answered this. My 2003 Ford Ranger does the same, when lights off the brake light works, when lights on brake light does not work. Wired into the green(+) and the middle wire(-) going into the harness for the brake light bulb on the left side.
Man - o - live it's the way it always goes on these jury rig projects - I have to do the same thing as just did my first inspection and mine was missing as you didn't need to have that damn light that got wrecked from being in the back of my topper from boards and too much what not - yeah, what not - lol - quality adhesive and other products from our favorite friend of president * country
4 wires are the correct amount for a dome light and 3rd brake light. A hot and ground for each one. Green is not a common color for ground in vehicles. Normally black in a vehicle and white on a trailer. The 2 wires that are pre connected with that 1/4 female spade connector are most likely your ground. The other 2 wires are the hot for the 3rd brake light and hot for the dome light. It appears you hooked up the trucks hot brake wire to the toppers ground for the dome light and 3rd brake light. Then you hooked up a ground wire to the toppers brake hot lead.. Are the topper's brake lights LED's? A LED will not light when hooked up in reverse polarity. Is the topper's dome light an incandescent bulb? Incandescent bulbs will light up when hooked up in reverse polarity. Solution Hook up truck ground to the 2 toppers wires that are connected together Hook up truck brake light hot (your green wire) to the other wire going to the topper's brake light.
My thought exactly the entire video, I wouldn't be surprised if he failed inspection for the wire nuts and grounding to the topper clamp with the bare romex wire, but I don't know how close they look since I don't have inspections where I am, I'm just anal on having stuff working right myself.
No offense bro, but what a hack-job. You should have run the ground to the chassis that followed the green positive wire (hot), all with butt connectors and flex tubing. And I agree with the rest of the comments, the two wires crimped in the spade terminal was the ground, if you would have tried it the other way the original light should have worked. But it it works, so that’s all that matters, as long as your happy then it doesn’t make a difference what other people think.
I would of took the cap off and got the truck inspected in another place then put it back on.For decades trucks had caps with no brake lights.Where do they come up with these laws that make us driving and getting vehicles to pass inspection such an annoying pain in the you know where,LOL,unbelievable.
I just fixed my 55 Chevy brakelights wouldnt work at all on both sides. I just need a safety only inspection.Thats what brought me to your video after I fixed my two problems yesterday. Only one side worked after finding broken wire coming out of brakelight switch under dash to get power to the rear.Fixed that then the passenger side didnt work,LOL. I found spade connector after awhile was loose coming out of the steering column plug harness so now they both work. So I had two problems simultaneously thats ole cars and trucks I guess.But anyway you have good electrical troubleshooting skills which is good to know its relatively easy the basics anyway.Glenn P.in N.Y. Does that Amazon light still work????
I bet that 55 Chevy is a blast. We’ve got a 66 Carryall id love to restore someday. I’m glad he finally figured out what your problem(s) I was. The LED brake light is still working great and is still attached with the original JB Weld.
I'm interested to see if anyone else has an answer for you on this. I was looking around the web and found someone who has a low reading on his rear turn signal and someone responded by saying: "reduced voltage at the socket is a result of resistance. such as in a bad connection, a splice, a fuse or what ever, either on the power side or on the ground side". Not sure if that helps or not.
First check your battery voltage and stick a charger on it if needed. Test the voltage before and after the brake light switch. Good voltage before and after the switch suggest the green wire itself is damaged or corroded. Good voltage before and low voltage after suggest a bad switch or bad connection at the switch. Low voltage both before and after the switch suggests a connection problem further up towards the fuse box. You may just need to clean and tighten some connections, or you may need to replace components. Good luck tracking it down!
![[Re:all TREASURE] EP.6 in 방콕ㅣ🚩 쩡캠의 방콕 투어 빵 마이 와이 👍](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uyFw-nItA_s/mqdefault.jpg)
I've been really happy so far with this LED 3rd brake light I got from Amazon for $8:
🔴 amzn.to/2fVxq4C
Also, the J-B PlasticWeld has held up great! I'll post here if anything changes.
🔴 amzn.to/2vPk0g4
If your old light is still there try reversing your wires. I'll bet the shared wires was the ground and the separate wire is the hot for you third break light.
George Reese Did you try George’s idea about switching the positive/ground wires?
There was nothing wrong with the original 3rd brake light. You had it wired backwards. The black wire with the white stripe is the positive wire. Those other two wires that are joined together are grounds.
That set of wires with the shared plug is your ground. The dome and third brake light shouldn't share a power source, but they can share a ground with no problem.
I was over at the Safety Inspection station today and got denied due to this exact problem. My Leer Topper brake light not being wired up. (Bummer! - wasted 7 of my hard earned dollars to the State) I asked the mechanic how much they would charge me to hook the thing up? They stated $139.00. I got home, googled up "rigging a camper top light" and your video popped up. My 2001 Rangers "GREEN" wire wasn't hanging and for sure wasn't labeled. At first I connected the positive from my LED light to a "GREEN w/ a RED tracer" line. I wired it up, hit the brakes and was all like HELL Yeah! She's workin' solid! That was until I hit my left turn signal and the brake light started flashing along with it. Ahhhhh, Man!!! Well, I took myself a break, then got back under my truck and due to no "GREEN" wire sticking out. I carefully razor opened the sleeve on the harness. (The bulky part next to a connector). There were quite a few wires bundled up behind that connector. I saw the "GREEN w/Red" wire again. (left brake) Then I splayed them open to look closer for any sign of another "GREEN" wire and BING-OOO! There she was! Smack dab in the middle of the batch. I checked it out and it was the SOLID "GREEN" that you showed us in your video here. I rigged this one up to the toppers brake light and Winner-Winner-Whataburger Dinner! (yes we, the family had some delicious Whataburger for dinner tonight.) ;)
Anyway, I propped a piece of wood on the brake pedal and 2nd BINGO!!!! The toppers brake LED lit up like Christmas! Then, I hit my left turn and the topper brake stayed off! (same with the right blinker) Thanks for putting your video out. Saved me a $139.00 dollar bill. Greatly appreciate your video.
Good thing they placed it right in the middle for easy access. 😜
Thanks for sharing how you did it on a 2001 Ranger. I may just have some Whataburger tonight in your honor.
Got a 2004 ranger that I'm trying to do this with I cant find any schematic that makes sense to me I've never done wiring before it's my biggest weak point of DIY work lol any tips that could possibly help me out?
Seems like the two wires which are together ought to be the ground and the single wire should be what you hook the hot wire to. Not an electrician, but I wonder if the brake lights are LED and with DC current, you have to wire them a correctly.
After seeing a few videos, none would show something close to what I have. I saw where you found the green wire, went outside and found it right away. Thanks
I think the two wires joined together was a joint ground…you should have tried the led lights reversed to see if they worked. With a joint ground you can power some and tail seperately.
👍
Yea, I ran into this earlier this year on a Ford Focus and was shocked. I mean here in east Texas only about 20% of the people use turn signals......actually the auto parts stores were sold out of led lights due to this new law. I would drill out the rivets pull the existing fixture and see if the have incandescent bulbs, that's what was on the focus. Otherwise, good job! Reminds me that our camper didn't have running lights last time out.
I get that the more lights you have the better, but shouldn't two brake lights on the back of a vehicle be enough? Maybe GE wasn't selling enough bulbs in Texas so they lobbied to get this law in place to force more bulb sales. lol
Yeah, I really thought about drilling the rivets out but I really couldn't see a way to open the dang thing once out. I didn't want to end up breaking it and then being stuck with a hole that I couldn't fill properly with a new light. If this LED ends up not working after a few months, I'll probably try to fix the old one.
Hello from Austin! just wanted to drop a comment and let ya know I appreciate ya for making this video. I failed inspection on my 93 GMC Vandura for this reason. not a car guy or a handy guy but you steered me in the right direction and I found a brake hot line in the hitch hookups. One less thing to worry about, now on to the next headache.
+Big Vonwolf Great! It sounds like you’re becoming pretty handy. Most people wouldn’t attempt it. Well done!
I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers,
Consulting with the rain;
And my head I'd be a scratchin'
While my thoughts are busy hatchin'
You had the 3rd brake light hooked up backwards and led’s won’t light in reverse
I didn't know Texas had vehicle inspection!
I wonder if my 2011 ranger has that green wire
What about if it has 3 wires the new brake light
I wonder what about a soft topper ? They don't come with a third Brake light so would that be excusable to not have one ?
That’s an interesting question. I have no idea.
I tried to install the same break light on my daihatsu cuore rear wind screen. I peeled wires of car holder a bit and attached third light black wire to cars negative and red wire to cars positive in the holder. now what happens when cars headlights are ON the third break light doesn't work at all but when headlights are OFF third break light works with the break. I didn't grounded any of the wire rather attached them with holders wiring. do you know why this is happening
Wish someone answered this. My 2003 Ford Ranger does the same, when lights off the brake light works, when lights on brake light does not work. Wired into the green(+) and the middle wire(-) going into the harness for the brake light bulb on the left side.
Man - o - live it's the way it always goes on these jury rig projects - I have to do the same thing as just did my first inspection and mine was missing as you didn't need to have that damn light that got wrecked from being in the back of my topper from boards and too much what not - yeah, what not - lol - quality adhesive and other products from our favorite friend of president * country
What’s up with the rattle snake noise ?
You've got some good info in this video! Just wanted to say, "Thank You".
Like the Philmont shirt. Never made it there.
3m double sided tape for trim...
You could have just drilled the rivets out change bulb/ dip thicker screws in some waterproof sealant screw them in.
That’s true
Good point. If this LED ever falls off or stops working I may give that a shot.
Glad it worked out with all that work!
4 wires are the correct amount for a dome light and 3rd brake light.
A hot and ground for each one.
Green is not a common color for ground in vehicles.
Normally black in a vehicle and white on a trailer.
The 2 wires that are pre connected with that 1/4 female spade connector are most likely your ground.
The other 2 wires are the hot for the 3rd brake light and hot for the dome light.
It appears you hooked up the trucks hot brake wire to the toppers ground for the dome light and 3rd brake light.
Then you hooked up a ground wire to the toppers brake hot lead..
Are the topper's brake lights LED's?
A LED will not light when hooked up in reverse polarity.
Is the topper's dome light an incandescent bulb?
Incandescent bulbs will light up when hooked up in reverse polarity.
Solution
Hook up truck ground to the 2 toppers wires that are connected together
Hook up truck brake light hot (your green wire) to the other wire going to the topper's brake light.
My thought exactly the entire video, I wouldn't be surprised if he failed inspection for the wire nuts and grounding to the topper clamp with the bare romex wire, but I don't know how close they look since I don't have inspections where I am, I'm just anal on having stuff working right myself.
Talk about a cob job. Not the cleanest install but if it keeps you from getting pulled over. Was waiting for you to grab a roll of 14/2 Romex haha
LOL!
Did you ever get the dome light to work on its own again? If so how did you wire it? Which wire did you hook it to? Thanks!
It’s still on my list of things to do. It would be nice to have it working though so I may have to move it closer to the top of the list.
Good video ! These things are a real pain.
Kinda hard to follow with all the unessassary camera movements.
No offense bro, but what a hack-job. You should have run the ground to the chassis that followed the green positive wire (hot), all with butt connectors and flex tubing. And I agree with the rest of the comments, the two wires crimped in the spade terminal was the ground, if you would have tried it the other way the original light should have worked. But it it works, so that’s all that matters, as long as your happy then it doesn’t make a difference what other people think.
Informative video.
My third brake light was knocked off, all I need to know, plastic weld, thank you
Good deal!
Thanks for the video!
You bet!
I would of took the cap off and got the truck inspected in another place then put it back on.For decades trucks had caps with no brake lights.Where do they come up with these laws that make us driving and getting vehicles to pass inspection such an annoying pain in the you know where,LOL,unbelievable.
Lol! no kidding. 🙄 I thought about doing that but figured I’d end up having to do it in the end.
I just fixed my 55 Chevy brakelights wouldnt work at all on both sides. I just need a safety only inspection.Thats what brought me to your video after I fixed my two problems yesterday. Only one side worked after finding broken wire coming out of brakelight switch under dash to get power to the rear.Fixed that then the passenger side didnt work,LOL. I found spade connector after awhile was loose coming out of the steering column plug harness so now they both work. So I had two problems simultaneously thats ole cars and trucks I guess.But anyway you have good electrical troubleshooting skills which is good to know its relatively easy the basics anyway.Glenn P.in N.Y. Does that Amazon light still work????
I bet that 55 Chevy is a blast. We’ve got a 66 Carryall id love to restore someday. I’m glad he finally figured out what your problem(s) I was. The LED brake light is still working great and is still attached with the original JB Weld.
Im only getting 10.8v out of the green brake wire.
I'm interested to see if anyone else has an answer for you on this. I was looking around the web and found someone who has a low reading on his rear turn signal and someone responded by saying: "reduced voltage at the socket is a result of resistance. such as in a bad connection, a splice, a fuse or what ever, either on the power side or on the ground side".
Not sure if that helps or not.
First check your battery voltage and stick a charger on it if needed.
Test the voltage before and after the brake light switch. Good voltage before and after the switch suggest the green wire itself is damaged or corroded. Good voltage before and low voltage after suggest a bad switch or bad connection at the switch. Low voltage both before and after the switch suggests a connection problem further up towards the fuse box. You may just need to clean and tighten some connections, or you may need to replace components.
Good luck tracking it down!
Putting power to the ground
That’s smart
Taking your camper off is gonna be a pain in the ass lol
I don't know about everyone else but the audio is horrible I can barely hear what you're saying over the rest of the noise
The creatures in the background are distracting. You should have fired a few warning shots prior.
What a cluster fk of trial and error.
Nice hiss to ruin the audio.
What an incredible journey....i laughed, i cried, i might get off my ass and hook up my own 3rd light. Thanks for the tips!
+Anna VanMeter Best comment I’ve had all week! 🤣