Decided to give the five brake light mod a go today... an hour later all working perfectly. This is a very easy modification and I highly recommend it. How I achieved it:

1. took out rear reflector panel
2. obtained two light sockets from and old tail light I had - these are the two filament ones (you can use single filament, but I wanted lights and brake lights)
3. removed the right hand tail light and disconnected it.
4. using a test light, i put on the lights and then checked which prong was positive. it was the white/blue one
5. Then, i put on the brake pedal (using a brick to hold it) and again, using the test light noted which one was positive - it was the blue one.
6. Armed with this information, i stripped back the wires (note, I did not CUT them, just stripped back some insulation. I then put solder on the wires where they were stripped back.
7. I then cut two pieces of wire - one red, one black (as the wires from the 'donor' filaments had red/black and brown wires) about two feet long.
8. I soldered the red and black wires to the wires I had just stripped (red for lights, black for brakes)
9. Taped all the wires up/insulated them, then fed the wires through the hole towards the middle light panel.
10. I then need to find a common earth. I again put the lights on and using the positive wire - found the earth from the reverse lights using the test light - which was the thick brown wire.
11. I stripped back the brown wire insulation and again, soldered it.
12. I then ran a wire from the brown soldered common earth to the brown wires (so two of them) to each filament.
13. Measuring the red and black wires I had poking through, I stripped back the insulation where they 'passed' the first filament and soldered the red and black wires.
14. At the end of the red and black wires - I then soldered the other ends to the 2nd filament.
15. I then tested it all - everything worked first time.
16. I then taped up all the wires and tucked them all in nice and neat.

Job done. So now i have four tail lights and five brake lights.

 

POIDH pics or it didn't happen...

 

Here you go - proof !!

 

That looks good..... I do hope it will stop you for getting hit from behind
Some drivers are so close and do not pay attention when you are braking
In my 356 it is even worse with old bad light but I will put in a modern LED to improve the stop light brightness

 

I, too, have swapped LEDs in place of original 1960s tail lamps in the interest of protecting myself from texting drivers.

A friend of mine brought over his BMW motorcycle a year or two ago and had me solder in a strobing relay that worked amazingly well: when he hit his brake lights, the LEDs would strobe for a second or two before coming on solid. If I turned my head 90 degrees and he did it, the strobing effect immediately caught my eye, causing me to focus on it.

I've noticed these on recent ambulances and have tried, without success, to find them for my automobiles. Certainly wouldn't work for incandescents.

I like the install, hepkat. A lot.

Time to ponder a rear fog light or LED install...

 

I just bought the 'intelligent' version of this: http://www.kahtec.com/products.htm

Will be installing it when it arrives to further enhance safety.

 

I am not any kind of electrician or really for that matter know enough about automotive wiring, but am wondering just a small little thing. how do we know that when Porsche designed the wiring and circuits that they designed it with the wiring and, for lack of a better term here, the circuit durability to handle the extra lights without burning up or popping fuses or whatever??....sort of like when you plug too many things into one outlet, is it going to either burst into flames, burn up the wiring or blow the circuit fuses??

I really want to do this....but not at the cost of a fried car or smoked wiring. can anyone who does know more about wiring chime in?...unless of course you know all about this sort of thing.

 

Thanks for the pics, looks good, hopefully stops you getting rear ended.
I too have bought an intelligent flasher but need to find a decent led 3rd brake light to install with it.

 

Regarding the extra current due to the bulbs, I used LED bulbs in the center reflector, so extra current pulled should be at a minimum.


More discussion around the wiring, light sockets, and bulbs I used.
https://rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=724399

 

@OP: Cool mod, sweet plate. Jealous!

@Smokey: Using LEDs in the 'new' lights will not strain the electrical system as the current increase is surely less than .5A. Further, the faster reaction ('light up time') of the LEDs (as seen in the video above) helps to enhance the ability of the total brake light system to get the attention of the driver behind.

 

Hi Smokey7766,
there is no way you'll burn out any wiring doing this unless you fail to insulate the connections somehow. The additional amps required to run two extra filaments are totally acceptable for the size of the wiring.

If you look at this this (simple) way - the wiring sizes in cars, or for any electrical application are gauged by the amps that they have to carry. Fuses are there purely to prevent a short from frying out your wiring. The fuse size is also consistent with the wire size. So if you run wires size 10 - then you need a fuse size 10 (as example).

Yes, it's a great mod and well worth the hour it takes. If you need any help, just let me know.
regards
steve