knfeparty

When did the US law requiring 3rd brake lights come into effect? I ask because my car came with a 3rd brake light that operated normally...in the back seat. The rear hatch glass was not original and the light had not been glued well. So I glued it back. Well, turns out there is a small leak. So of course it fell off again (even with epoxy!). Well I've fixed the leak, so I could try to coarsen the inside of the glass for a bit more grip and epoxy it again, but I don't really want to if I don't have to. I know my inspection sheet says "3rd brake light," but am I exempt if the car was made before the law? It blocks my rear view so much, I was thinking that if I had to have it, I could replace it with a smaller LED unit and run the wire along the hatch and mount it lower down, or even under the spoiler or perhaps IN the spoiler (of course I would have to tear up a perfectly good spoiler to do that). Any thoughts? Anyone have a torn-up spoiler they would like to sacrifice for this project? I'll draw some sketches of my ideas later and PM anyone if they want to see my ideas (or want to post them for me).

Vjgtrybno1

I believe it was 1986 model year, but some automakers adopted it for 1985

Hawk36

Don't know but my 85.5 has one.

Mark Hubley

I'm pretty sure the US required the center-mounted brake light for the 84 model year.

knfeparty

Blast. I hate the thing. It screams "Iroc-z." Okay, well at the very least I am going to go to a wider, less tall LED strip or something. The dag-on thing just extends too far down and I cannot see!

MPD47

I run a Hella LED 3rd brake light (though it doesnt look it in the photos) it matches the stock brake lights perfectly (color wise).




Here is a thread I posted about it in:

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-944-951-968-forum/278937-hella-led-3rd-brake-light.html

Crunky

It was '86 model year. My '84 doesn't have one.

hpservertech

My 85.5 doest have one, so i think it's later years.

knfeparty

MPD47, that looks great and I'm sure the visibility out the reat is much better. Thanks for the heads-up on the Hella product. How/where did you affix it? I have my headliner out because I just finished working on the sunroof, so now would be a good time for me to do this project, but I don't know what I would screw it on to unless I epoxied a bracket onto the roof or something. Or I guess I could epoxy to the glass again, but I hate having the light on the glass since it makes the cord pull on the headliner, and also I hate epoxying things to glass!

MPD47

You can either expoxy a bracket to the roof just before the hatch, or I went for a much easier approach, drill + self tapping bolts.

Dr.Porsche

I just read that the first 400 944 Turbos did not have a third brake light. All after that did. Trivia really.

Vjgtrybno1

I had an '84 Pontiac 6000 STE - no third light. A friend got an 85 - it had the light but he bought it as an option.

billthe3

Looking at your thread, you mention doing some led tails as well - did you ever do this?

MPD47

I have a guy doing them for me, he's a lighting professional does the LED stuff for Boeing or Lockheed, I cant remember.

billthe3

Are they going to be bulb/plates that just fit inside the stock light housing or are you doing something fancy?