So I bought an led strip for a third brake light and tried to install it today. After taking everything apart I found that I could not find the right wires to plug the led strip into and thus made my best guess. I found zero online to help and the instructions in the package were very hard to understand. Can anybody help before I end up returning yhis? Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
get a multi-meter (like a cheap one at harbor-freight), squeeze a hammer (or a piece of wood or whatever you have handy) between the underside of the dashboard & the brake pedal (so that the brake lights are activated), now set the multimeter to VDC, contact the black cable from the multimeter to ground (a blank screw or something like that), probe with the red cable your contacts in the connector & see which one is hot (meaning: which one shows some voltage above 12v) /
4th brake light, the ones that flickers 3 times then stays lit. That oughtta drive drivers behind bonkers.
Do you mean like this? I just installed this LED Third Brake Light, all one part, no strips added on.
"To alert drivers behind me, I am braking..." Doesn't the actually brake like coming on alert the drivers behind me that I'm braking??????????? The blinking mean you want to piss off the one behind you! And having the 3rd "brake" light on on the time would make drivers wonder if your brake lights were stuck on or are you braking????
If it pisses them off that means they are paying attention! I take it you've never had anyone drive into the back of the vehicle you are driving? Regarding your comment about thinking my brake light is on is inaccurate, there is a clear delineation between brake and running. More than welcome to try again and I am glad you actually read the post, kudos to you!
"More than welcome to try again" Try what again????? I didn't try anything before. Just what I want to do, piss off other drivers.... And yes, I've had someone drive into the back of my car... What I was stating was, I do not know of, nor have I ever seen/notice the "3rd brake light" on as a running light. I read the post, and went to the page, that's how I knew how to respond. There is no reason to be so defensive. If you like the device, and it makes you feel good, then it was $50 well spent.
most people have their heads pointing down toward their smartphones so brake lights are almost useless now. the op does have a good idea to piss people off- drivers behind will stray their eyes’ away from their phones and stare right into the strobing brake light warning. Red flash-flash-flash.
Enough cars around here have those—I don't know, maybe one in 30—that I've seen them enough to recognize that mechanical strobe-like blinking. As soon as I figure out "yeah, that guy isn't panic braking at every stop sign, he just has one of those", I'm pretty well able to tune it back out. The one risk there is I might be slower to catch it if he ever really does panic brake. But that's just the familiar downside of crying wolf.
