Hi all
New member here and happy to have found you guys. I just got my 2013 4S and have a problem. The center tail light does not work. I' check the plug connection behind the drive tail light and reconnected it with no success. Is this a common problem? Any other possibilities than a bad led light?

 

Never heard of this.

Does your license plate lights work?

 

Maybe a good time to install the black center grill the rwd GTS has?

 

Yes the license plate lights work. No I want to keep the light bar, I really like it (if it worked!)

 

I suppose it's really only one of 2 things, bad light or no power to the light. I was going to check the supply with my voltmeter but there are about 12 pins. Not sure why so many and is there a diagram for the plug wiring?

 

Yesterday I checked the voltage at the connector. It's a 10 pin connector and pins 1&2 tested 12V + and -. The rest were 0. I'm not sure of the reason. Perhaps there are 5 led's and each one has a lead and only comes on with the first one. I don't think there's a problem with the power supply but any confirmation before I order a $600 replacement light is appreciated!

 

I believe that harness also controls the wing, which would be +, -, and a couple limit switches or, because German, some kind of encoder feed.

Can pull up the wiring diagrams here, give me a little bit.

 

The one brown wire to the right looks pinched and pulled out.

I'd get a 12v test probe and go through all those wires and introduce 12v to each and see what lights up.

 

Be wary of doing this with an unregulated power supply (or, frankly, at all). Modern car here, many systems expect PWM and it'll be very easy to overcurrent. You also have CANBUS communication wires there, which are 3.3 volt wires. Shoving 12 volts through those is bad juju.

 

This is all controlled by the BCM -- rear aero, all rear lights, etc.. The high mount brake lamp is fed by a black/red wire. Also since it has its own wire, I'd fully expect there to be a fault on your MFD.




I assume the .1 has a spoiler lamp as well as an engine lid lamp like the .2, the diagrams imply this at least... if so, the brake lamp on the spoiler functioning when the spoiler is fully extended?

Solid brown is ground, so a continuity check there is simple for any brown wire. The high mount lamp uses the GP8 ground point at the rear left of the car, same as the entire left taillight assembly and both license plate lamps, so if it's a ground issue I'd expect to see more faults.

Check the wire going into the back of the lamp on the engine lid instead of the big connector. Should only be two wires there, blk/red and brn.




Near as I can tell, the connector you pictured is X250. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find connect pin diagrams, and circuits going through connectors seem to be inconsistently marked in the FSM.

 

Thanks asellus. I checked the 3rd brake light and the 3rd brake light under the wing and both are working properly. license plate lights and everything else appear to be working properly. The diagram for the X250 connector sounds like what I need.

 

Failing finding that diagram, just look for the black wire with a white stripe. That should be the switched +12v for the taillamp.

I also mistyped in the earlier post (will edit, but pointing this out is necessary) -- red/white is term30, which is +12v battery. That should always be hot if you come across it. I don't think there's a term30 pin in that harness you're looking at, though.

 

You need to check for +5 volts at the 3 pin connector at the center lamp. You will have to remove the bumper to do so. The 991.1 does not use 12v to power the center light bar, but rather 5v (I have tested a 991.1 clear bar I have here)

 

OK so this mystery may have finally been solved. I feel like an idiot. Porsche of Tampa tells me that it's a reflector, not a light! Part #99163146005. My apologies to all.

 

It’s a wide body (4S)….. so it’s a light… unless your ‘13 is different than my ‘14