Many of us have had the third brake light crap out. Replacement is expensive and some dealers even say the rear window needs to be removed to do it.

Here is my story which may help someone.

FIRSTLY a quick edit. Apparently my light may have been a replacement light which does not have a plastic lip on the glass side. Please read through this thread about the lip/no lip issues.



I have an 06 GT and I was able to pry the light off with some plastic tools. Slowly it came right off and all that was attached were the wires. I did not use any power tools, or drilled any holes, or used anything other than two basic plastic panel removal tools. One on the glass side (being very careful not to put any pressure on the glass itself) and the other on the top (roof) side. It just popped right off, clip by clip. I stared on the PASSENGER side which is NOT where the wires come through the glass.

Once the light was free, I was able to carefully and slowly pull a little more wire out and cut them about half way. With a meter and someone pushing the brakes, I verified the 12v voltage on the wires to make 100% sure that the power with the brake pedal was getting to them and they were.

NOW TO THE LIGHT ITSELF. Using a dremel I carefully cut open the bottom of the light where the wires were going in. I would cut a little and then pry back and snip some plastic. I did this enough that I was able to clearly see a long green circuit board along the back (opposite of the red lens side). I only cut out about 3-4 inches long of the bottom plastic to be able to get inside the light itself.

I kept cutting away and soon saw that the wires actually go into a white connector on the circuit board. I saw quite a bit of corrosion around that connector. I was able to spray some DEOXIT on the connector and plug it in and out many times to work the corrosion off.

I then used a bench power supply and put 5v to the wires and the lights worked. I upped the voltage to 12 and success. I used some black RTV to seal evething back up. After it was dry and watertight, I then soldered the wires back to the wires the are coming out of the glass (with heat shrink). I put a few dabs of black RTV along the light and pushed it all back into the clips.

This entire process took me about two hours and cost me zero dollars.

Before you spend the $500 or more on a new light (not including installation) you might try this. I think the internal white connector INSIDE the light might be where it's failing for everyone. Those LEDS are wired in serial/parallel so its really not possible for ALL of them to suddenly not work. It has to have lost 100% of the power somwhere and that seems to be a corroded connector.

Good luck and I'm happy to answer any questions if someone is trying this.

I'm REALLY happy I was able to do this without even getting inside the car. No seat removal, no panel removals, no nothing. All done from the outside of the car.

 

Wow, great information. By any chance did you take any pics during the process?

I replaced mine and even taking the shortcut described on this board, it was still $1,500 or so. I'm sure you're right, we know it's water infiltration, so this makes sense that it's a connector.

 

Hello @Copperline ,
As ​​​​@British asked, did you take any pictures?
If so, please share them with us.

I ask this because I want to be sure 100% that the third brake light you removed, is infact the original 2006 factory installed light, as you made a comment of using two plastic tools, the one on the roof side I can see, but the tool being used on the glass side needs a little clearing up, as the factory installed light has a lip, and said lip does not appear to allow any room for a tool to get under said lip, as the lip is said to be under the glass, the new replacement light of the same part number for the 05 and 06 I have, has no lip, but my 05 and 06 lights do, so before anyone else or myself attempt removal of this light following your procedure, please confirm that your light was/is a original factory installed light from 2006 with the lip, also you mentioned pulling the wires out some and cutting them, the factory original light does not have wires like the replacement light, it has a flat ribbon cable, so I am almost certain that you a have replacement unit there, not the factory installed original.

Please confirm.

Edit: as to not cause any confusion, in one of my pictures and also stated above, I say that both the lip and non lip lights have the same part number, they do, as shown molded into the body of each light, although the new unit has a sticker depicting the "L" revision letter, as does the box it came in, I was just confused as to the same part numbers on each, yet having no lip...

See my pictures below.

Thank you.
Johnny

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Mine did NOT have that lip, so either mine was a replacement or maybe a mid year? (mine is a late 06).

That lip would certainly have made removing it from the glass side more difficult.

 

@Copperline ,
Thank you so much for your quick response and clearing up the lip issue, you may want to edit your post with a warning, as your light was/is a replacement light without the lip.

The lip has nothing to do with mid year, as even the 08 and 09's have the lip.

So, I will have to follow the procedure done by @Zaos .

Thank you again !

Johnny

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