WTF??

One would think that replacing a 3rd brake light would be a simple plug and play task right? Not so much.

I just got my recon LED 3rd brake light and figured how bad can this be? I removed the screws, carefully pulled out the assembly and slowly pulled the wire harness towards me and then the connector pulled loose and I was standing there holding everything. So I went to look for the male connector the the harness plugs into and its no where to be found!! I scraped the knuckles looking for the darn thing, used a flash light and I have no freaking idea where it went.

I can't imagine anybody has had this problem, but any suggestion? I guess if worse comes to worse I can go to the dealership and tell them my 3rd brake light stopped working

 

I had the same problem, had to go through the headliner in backseat and found the connector. It was a pain in the *** but finally got it... Simple plug and play, so I thought too... Good luck

 

I was goingt o do the samething, but then I found out that the headliner might have to be taken out and I said hell with it. I endedup tinting the stock 3rd brake light, and it turned out great! Good luck with getting everything back together, I did that on my 94 and never again.

 

what do I need to do to take off the headliner?

 

Well that just sucks!!

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, the male harness is actually down inside the cab? Or is it actually close to the light and you just wasn't aware that it would come loose and it did and retracted back into the cab??

I'm just trying to gauge if I might be able to do it as long as I know what precautions to take.

Also, where did you find the best price??

Good luck with it brother!!

 

I thought that the connector would be close to the light, just like the other lights on the vehicle. I really was cautoius when pulling the harness off but it came off way to easy. I really think it was connected way inside near interior dome light. I know others have either removed the light or just moved it to put in the SAT radio antenna, hopefully they can shed some light. I guess i'm going to have to take off the headliner. what a pain in the a$$

 

No kiddin'!!

 

Well I finally gave up on this install. The frustrating part is that this simple mod should have been plug and play, but it turned out to be quite a pain in the ****. I took off the coat hooks and tried to remove the round clips holding the rear of the headliner off, but it was just causing more damage. I read a post saying that the 3 prong connector was on the passenger side, so i started removing the pillar and seatbelt to get to it, but after removing the molding, seatbelt and pulling the headliner down slightly, it was no where to be found. So I climbed back in the bed and used a flash light to view the everything above the headliner and I could see everything pretty well and I didn't see any wire that was near the old light. The final straw was when the mini mag light slipped out of my hand while poking through the hole and fell into the headliner!!!

I almost crapped myself!!! Good thing those mini mags have a small hole on the end of it, because I used a coat hook to reach inside and somehow hook the end of it and slowly pull it out. That was it!! put everything back together, installed the OEM back unplugged and called it a day. I called the dealer and set up an appointment to fix that and a few other things I've been putting off.

Plug and play my butt!! When they reconnect the light I might try to slowly pull out the OEM and give it another try, but I'll ask them where the heck the plug is first before I attempt this debacle again.

sorry for the long post, but the would have been a cool install, so you might see this on e-bay.

 

WOW
Glad I didn't have that problem.
On tuesday this week UPS delivered my Recon Smoke Grey LED 3rd Light. I climbed up, removed the 2 screws, cut the loom fastner(white) at the top right with a razor blade, then pulled the loom with the male/female fastener through the right side 1" hole. I disconnected the stock unit, plugged in the Recon, taped it to prevent the loom from rattling, then fastened it with the stock screws....all in about 6 minutes lucky me.
Looks awesome on my Dark Shadow Grey 04
Norm

 

I have the Tucan LED brake light. It used the stock harness and the stock halogen cargo lights. All you have to do with this light is plug the LED power source into the stock 3rd brake light socket in the harness. Only bad thing about this light is they no longer make it.

 

Have any pics?

 

Since were on the subject of the 3rd brake light...I'm thinking of getting this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SMOKE...spagenameZWDVW

My main concern is having the LED 3rd and reg HD tails, I think it may look weird having LED and reg tails mixed. If this light had a red reflector and reg bulb in it I wouldn't hesitate getting it.

 

That light is the Recon LED one. It has the LED cargo lamps that arent bright at all. I have the LED third brake light and stock tails and it doesnt look too bad, since most SUV's have the LED third light and stock halogen tails.

 

Man sounds like a royal PITA. I wanted to get one of the smoked ones but I dont know if I feel like taking apart all kinds of crap just to swap out a light

 

hey airborne its SUUUPPPPEEERRRR easy! I have no idea how these guys messed it up. If you get the Recon LED light all you have to do is take the (2) screws off the stock light and gently pull the wireharness until you see the clip where you can unclip if from the stock harness. Then do all these steps backwards and its done! VERY EASY!