Seems nearly every one I see doesn't work, including mine. Not long after I get it working it vibrates loose again.

 

ive never had trouble with mine, except the bulb burnt out once.

 

my bulbs are burnt out.

i have LED replacements, and should have it working soon.

 

I messed with mine long enough to break it, so be careful. It's a pain in the rear

 

've got one in my 87 and it works great, I've had no problems with it. I am currently looking to upgrade it to a LED set-up, (along with my tailights) in the next couple months. I like the way the LEDs snap on and off, it looks better in my opinon, and they are much brighter.

 

Well, let's see.
We have owned the car for about 5 years, and have had it break 4 times already.
We have found 10 at the junk yards, with only 4 being in good shape!
So, we have replaced them 4 times already, and have just had it brake again just last week!
Damn stupid plastic !!
The CHP officer told us to replace it with a LED setup.

Like this helps,

George

 

mine works. i did strip the screws putting it back up there though

 

i think mine works

 

GM third brake lights are always burning out.
usually at the socket.
You find out when you get pulled over or you ABS light turns on.

But will the LED lights work with ABS brakes the ABS controller monitors the third brake light just a ??? I dont know.

 

did any third gens come with abs? mine doesnt have it.

 

no thirdgens ever had ABS from the factory.
and there is no circuit on our cars that has a idiot light come on when a bulb burns out.


my usual check is pretty easy.... when stopped at a light, look into the chrome bumper of the fuggin SUV/truck behind you..... or back into a parkingspace infront of a glass front building and look at the reflection. :lala:

 

If you get the stock replacement LED bulbs.... DONT because they are so dim that you cannot even see the brake lights during the day.... I believe they do make a stock replacement bulb that is 35 bucks that is supposed to be as bright as our stock bulbs... but not worth it.

I'm gonna have to find a sucker to by $100 worth of tail/blinker/brake/sidemarker bulbs so that I can start my Led board tail lights...

-Steve

(Also I think the reason the bulbs don't work so well is because they only project light straight out the lense... they don't go into the reflectors)

 

the problem is, theres one "cone" coming out of the top and a sharp cutoff of no light outside that cone... and then a mostly straight out beam around the flat edge


what you need, is motorcycle brake light LEDs... these are the ultra bright, wide angle LEDs that you see on the rear of some motorcycles.... they're the only place i know of where you know they will be bright enough and have a large viewing angle..
if i could find a commercial supplier that had the same specs, id buy from them, but i couldnt find one..... i ended up getting 10 off ebay... including the resistors already solderd and heatshrink wrapped on them for the 12-14.5V auto elec system..

go look for this guy on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2578978242



also, click that link and look at his pic... PERFECT picture of the way LEDs output light... i'll attach it here too

 

I've never had any problems in my '91. But I can't get those damned screws off the plastic. I wanted to fix my sagging headliner but that was in the way. I just hope it doesn't break or burn out anytime soon.

 

I have a 1992 Firebird with the Brake Light mounted high on the rear hatch.
The bulb burnt out maybe 6 months after I bought the car. I replaced it and noticed a little while later that it was burnt out again. Upon inspection it wasn't actually burnt out.
I replaced it just in case and it still doesn't work. Every other light and function works on the car and no fuses are blown.
I have an electric meter but I don't know how to use it to test the socket for power. An auto-electric shop wants an arm and a leg to find out what's wrong and fix it.
Any Suggestions?

 

take out the bulb

take some sandpaper and rub the corrosion off the contacts in the bulb socket

clean the bulb off for good measure

put it back together and check.

 

Been there done that. This car is CLEAN dude. I've taken apart the part the wire leads to from the actuall light and no problems there either.
I haven't tested any of the connections to see if they are getting power when the brake is applied though. I have a meter but I don't know how to use it.
Is there a common problem these cars had with the light?

 

The 92 hasn't worked in years. The bulb seems to get so hot it makes all the plastic brittle and break. Then it wont fit snug in the socket and the contacts dont make contact.

 

The third brake light of my car didn't work when I got it. If you unscrew the plastic trim marked in the pic you'll find a plug that connects the third brake light on the hatch to the car's wiring. It had come loose on my car.

 

mine wasn't working when i bought it. took it apart and saw that the reflector socket thing was cracked and not holding the bulb tight enough. got another one from a yard and fixed the problem.

and i agree LED's on the new cars do look cool.

 

you can remove the bulb and with the meter set to the next setting above 12V connect it between the 2 terminals (in place of the bulb). if you dont get a reading there is an open somewhere in the circuit.

 

that's my problem too....i can't get the bulb snug enough in the enclosure. it may work but as soon as i hit a bump it's done.

i've tried reinstalling different bases from other cars and it didn't help. if anyone has a better mount idea for the bulb please let me know as i'd like mine to work too.

 

Ok, I tested mine and it was getting power to the socket but on one of the contacts on the bulb the plastic had melted and bubbled up higher than the contact point. It didn't blow the bulb but it wasnt making contact anymore.
I took it all apart and in the process broke one of the tabs that hold the bulb in. It still holds the bulb in but it is now cracked.
I removed both of the contacts from the base and bent each one (very carefully) in towards each other. Not too much or the bulb wont slip in between them. This seems to hold the bulb better than the plastic does. If you rely on the contacts to hold the bulb then you don't have to worry about the plastic doing anything.
It seems to work pretty good for me. If the contacts are holding the bulb securely then you dont have to rely on the plastic. The plastic will just stop the bulb from falling all the way out.

 

wonderful how the lil things break isn't it? Well mine was out when I bought the car, it was on last time the car ran oh its a 91.

cheers

 

well I was going to do a 3rd brake light mod wiht mine...decided against it due to it having this issue...and i jsut removed it....a friend of mine had this issue and he used some kind of bulb grease and used electrical tape to hold the bulb inplace...and his had worked excellently for about a year now....

 

My GTA tells me when my brake lights are out Gotta love the digital dash

 

I had the same problem with my car when I bought it. I had the car inspected by a mechanic and he simply told me the rd brake light didn't work ( i assumed it was electrical). Well I took the cover off and the bulb fell in my hand. Just used a small screwdriver and bent the leads a little, holds in snug as a bug. Been going strong for 6 months now.

 

That is exactly how I broke mine. Bent the leads and SNAP!

 

I think the reason a lot of them break is because they're on the hatch and are being continuously slammed down. I loe my car but we all have to realize that some of the parts aren't the best, plus they're 12-13 years old, it happens.

I want to figure out why my car leaks water down from the brake light if it rains heavily. It's usually only a drop or two here and there but still, there's electrical parts in there. For some reason I have a feeling is has something do to with the t-tops...

 

My third brake light has burnt out several times. In fact, at one point the bulb was hot enough to burn the plastic lens (you can see it in the picture). I bought an led setup for it. So far it seems to be working. It was about 16 bucks for two at autozone. A little expensive for a bulb, but, if it works, its worth it.

 

Bandit,
You are not the only one with that problem. Mine has burned out 3 times, and it melts the plastic on the light. Well for now the lights going to stay out!

 

They break because the plastic heats up and cools down too much. The more times that happens the more brittle it becomes.
It might break because the hatch is slammed but the cause of the plastic becoming weak enough to break is due to the heating and cooling.
An LED bulb doesn't generate as much heat as a filament bulb. Switch it over and you won't burn your lense anymore.
www.superbrightleds.com has 3157's for much cheaper than 16 bux. 3-8 bux depending on the bulb. They have 12 and 20 leds per bulb and the 12 you can select wide or narrow projection. They also carry cool dome light leds as well as every other bulb for your car.

 

is it a direct plug in? how do you modify it to work with the led?

 

Direct plug in. No modification necessary. You only have to modify turn signals for direct plug in leds because they dont flash right. They have the applications for that on the site also.

 

I figured I wasn't the only one with that problem since just about every 91/92 I see doesn't have a working brake light.
Mine works, but won't fit tight. I get it working and after I hit a couple bumps it's knocked loose again. Oh well, I dont' hardly drive the car anymore and now my odometer quit.

 

not me, damn plastic housing disintegrated...

What do you guys mean you get pulled over for a bad third brake light? Were the hell you guys from, california?

 

whoa... "fbody dude" those are the exact leds that I would NOT buy... you CANNOT see those during the day, at all... I've had people following me and tell me they had no Idea I was stopping, I've even had someone almost hit me because of these damned led bulbs... they are the same exact ones as superbrightleds.com... HORRIBLE!!!! its because our taillight lenses require light to be reflected back into the reflector like a flashlight, and these leds go straight out the back of the car... if you could rig up some sort of reflector to do that then more power to you, but until then these bulbs are crap, and cost about 25 times more than a standard bulb...

Just didn't want anyone getting excited about these piles of junk... in fact I now have to find some "sucker" to buy $75 worth of these "bulbs" because I have to put in either regular bulbs or some extravagant LED board set up... (might do the latter).

The only led bulbs I would recommend are the ones for the front side markers and the rear side markers, ONLY BECAUSE THEY ARE A PAIN IN THE *** TO REPLACE! They are not brighter, they do not look cooler, and they cost way more...

hope I saved you some money....

 

see how it only puts a little circle of light on the end of the lense... its WAY worse during any kind of daylight. I guess they look kinda cool at night but its not worth it.

Also the middle ones are amber because when I got that type of bulb Autozone didn't carry a red version...

 

My 3rd Brake light was blown when I frst bought my car. After changing it over a year ago, it's worked just fine.

 

I haven't had that problem and my car has been rolled before.

 

Weird, I've never had a problem with mine.

 

Seems to be that those with light problems due to things melting should probably lay off the brake pedal.

 

I guess that's why mine never melted....

 

You can't step into victory lane with one foot on the brakes.

 

My 3rd taillight on my '91 RS hasn't worked in a long time. Tried replacing the bulb one time but that didn't fix it.

 

id say just test the wiring, and if its bad and that important (specially if ya get pulled over ) then just run new wiring! problem fixed.

cheers

 

Try reading this thread. All you need to know about what is wrong with it is here. I know it's long and it hurts to read but try it. It will work wonders.

 

i have a 3rd brake light on my 89 but i don't use the brakes just the gas and clutch sorry...

 

so you wear out your clutch instead of the brakes? seems like you'd rather replace 20 bucks in brake pads than to pay like 300+ to have the clutch replaced... or do the ***-awful job yourself... If I ever get a standard I will never slow down with the gears so that hopefully the clutch will last the life of the car.

 

I'm thinking of just using a 40mm computer fan, cutting a hole in the plastic under the light, and mount the fan with a grill on it. They run off of 12V, so just wire it into the light wiring, then it would turn on when the light does. This idea is still in the brainstorm stage, but I may go through with it in a week or so.