Taillight bulbs, confused about how they work Options

[RoadRage]

Today I was fiddling with the car and I took one of my tail lights out and noticed there is a second brake and light bulb in the casing, and I never saw it work, I thought maybe it was meant to, so I replaced the bulb but it still was not working, So im writing to ask whats the go?

After doing some research (Looking at some pics on this forum) I saw that the OEM tail lights seem to have only 1 light working on each side, but the JDM tails have 2 brake lights.

Im hoping to get some JDM tails soon, but until then, I want to roll with 2 lights working, because it seems like a wasted light if its un-used and in my opinion two looks cooler,

I had a play and switched around where the light goes but for now im just left with the decision about which way should my lights work for now until I figure out how to get both to work



Was the inside bulb (the right tail light in the photo, that I switched) never meant to work and it was always meant to be 1 light only (left light) or do I need some wiring harness of some sort?

[The_enD]

On my car, if I have the parking/headlights on, the outer red lights up, but at a lower voltage. Just like you have your left tail on the picture above.
When I hit the brakes all four light up at full voltage. If you are behind the car it looks like the running lights brighten up, that's what I mean by lower voltage.
What you can do is splice the wire from the running light and connect it to the bulb that is not working in your case. That simple.
I was thinking of doing the same, but I shaved my third brake light and I thought it's better to have a light that only work when I hit the brakes, for safety reasons.

[RoadRage]

Ok cool, I thinks it the angle of the photo but both lights are lit up the same voltage. Your set up of when lights are on only the outside is lit but when you brake all come on is good, but I don't know how I would do that set up, but I think I'll spice the wire and add it so all lights are on when headlights are on,

But does that mean every person who bought jdm tails and has 2 lights on each side had to spice new wire? Even tho there's one useless bulb there

This post has been edited by RoadRage: Jan 30, 2014 - 7:15 AM

[The_enD]

In the picture above you have switched the bulbs in the right taillight.

I don't know how people wire their JDMs, I think it might have to be the wire harness that comes with them, but I am not sure. Use the search function for JDM taillights install.
Or just splice the wires so it's ready for your new tails.

[RoadRage]

Yes I did, sorry I thought you were implying my photo has different voltages.

It's almost midnight here so I'm off to bed but in the morning I'll do some more search on jdm tail installs, and hopefully someone here posts with some more insight in them

Thanks

[cyberblader1130]

For JDM tails you can use the harness that comes with them since it's plug n play. You can also use the USDM harness and remove 1 bulb from each side since JDM uses 4 bulbs while USDM uses 5. Just depends if you prefer 1156/1157 bulbs vs 7440/7443 bulbs. I am currently using the harness that came with mine and it works great.

[richee3]

In the US, all four bulbs light up identically, same as the JDM lights. I'm not sure how they light up in Australia but both left lights definitely isn't right.

[RoadRage]

Lol I know it's not right
I just moved the working bulb to the other socket and see how it would look

But I think when I have time tonight or tomorrow I will wire in the second bulb

[RoadRage]

I'm making progress!

[VavAlephVav]

so all four of the tail lights should be 1157 bulbs which are 'dual element' , so they have one element lit while the tail light are on, and both elements light up when
the brake is applied which makes it brighter. then you have a single element 1156 bulb for each turn signal and each reverse light.

so you should have four tail lights and four brake lights