i almost failed my state inspection, the guy opened my trunk hit wiggled it around and it worked for the day and now its out again! LOL

 

There is a DIY on here somewhere, I used it to replace my 3rd brake light (04 G sedan).. I bought a simple LED bar from ebay (4.77$ free shipping), drilled up into the trunk area to get access to the second screw to remove the original LED bar. soldered in the new one, and whallla!

Took no more than 20 minutes to fix.

 

Well I tried again and was able to remove it through the trunk by drilling a hole to reach the passenger side screw. Wasn't too difficult to get out, but I think it's going to be a major PITA to reinstall. Here is a pic of the backside of the strip. I'm going to run by RadioShack in a bit to see if they have any diodes. I believe the small black one is the one described earlier in the thread. Not sure what the pink things are.



Here is the thread that briefly describes drilling a hole to reach the second screw.

https://g35driver.com/forums/lightin...ake-light.html

 

Damn I just checked my 04 Sedan and its out!! dont know how long its been out but got stopped two days ago by the po po and he didnt say nuttn about a light not working plus i got no ticket acting lost. if its not a problem in cali then im gonna leave it alone. Atleast my tails work..

 

The two "pink things" are resistors.
Honestly, the solder joint at the very top of the picture looks bad, but that may just be a mounting point

 

That solder joint is actually the negative connection to the LED's. It looks okay to me and my LED strip works fine 75% of the time. It actually was working just fine right before I took it out. It's weird though because nothing looks loose or anything. I'll probably replace that diode just to see if it keeps acting up. If so, I don't know that there's anything that can be done except for replacing with an aftermarket strip.

 

^You sure it's not cracked? Looks like crap in the pic

 

Do you have a household 12v power source, hook it up to the power leads and hopefully it won't work. Then jump out the diode and see if it works.


That negative wire solder point kinda looks a little questionable as well.

 

It's not the ticket that worries me...it's some a hole rear ending me and damaging my car.

The third brake light is sometimes the easiest to see. The prob with the g35 is the parking lights are also the brake lights, so they just get a little brighter. I've been behind other g35/ with the light out and it's definitely a little less noticeable when the brakes come on vs the parking lights without the third light working.

It's even worse if the person has smoked tails and no third light working. It is ticket able as it's failed safety equipment.


I've been behind a ton of newer cars with led third brakes lights and noticing them out...seems to be a theme. The major selling point was the LEDs would last...yet there are tons ofmcars with faulty led strips after a few years.

I gist don't want to get rear ended...one reason why I don't like smoked taillights.

 

Well, I just got everything put back together and...nothing changed. The light still works/doesn't work randomly. I tested it multiple times before reinstalling and it was working great. As soon as I get everything put back together...nothing.

I ended up replacing the diode even though I'm not sure there was anything wrong with it. The light was working fine when I took it out, after replacing the diode and all the way up until the end. I checked all of the solder points and everything looked solid to me. I even plugged the light in and rattled and shook it around to see if it would turn off and it was completely fine.

Since nothing was working after putting it all back together, I reached up through the trunk and rattled the wires that go into the back of the light around a little bit and the light turned on. Apparently there is something loose with that connection even though I couldn't ever get it to do that when I had the light removed.

Not really sure what to do now. It was pretty much a nightmare soldering on the new diode and reinstalling everything. Not sure if you guys are familiar with Murphy's Law, but it was in full swing today. I actually ended up having the pull the seats and rear shelf to get the second screw in. I didn't have a magnetic tip screwdriver so the damn screw fell off underneath the shelf.

 

I would take it out, heat the solder joint that me and mustang were talking about, and add some solder to it.
Also, check the solder joints where the wires come into the board, if jiggling the wires makes it go on/off, that may be the problem.

 

Yeah, I might take it out and resolder all of the connections tomorrow. Not really sure what else it could be unless the circuit board is bad.

 

Man that sucks. Troubleshooting can be a pita. Kinda can't wait to tear into min to see what the issue is...gonna have to wait thought.

That neg connection does look questionable in the pic though

 

I was going to take it back out today and resolder everything, but it seems to be working fine for the time being. I moved the wires around on the back and couldn't get it to turn off. I'll probably just drive it around for a while and see how things go.

 

Cool. Let's us know how it turns out. I'll look into mine in a few weeks.