Change Polarity on 3rd Brake Light on Lid

Can anyone point in the rigth direction on how to change the polarity on the 3rd brake light on the spoiler/lid? Thanks for any help.

I gotta ask why?

I have the smoked 3rd brake light for the lid and was told that it won't work unless you change the polarity...does that not sound correct? I have the smoked 3rd brake light for the back (in addition to the lid) and it works fine.

By the way Kilrgt, you have done one of the nicest jobs dressing up the 911 I have seen. While I am not a huge fan of the wings, your 911 looks fantastic. Meant to share that a while ago when you were posting about your new bumper.

Try it first. When it doesn't work (and it probably will), then ask.

Already tried two different ones. The OEM red one works fine, but the other two don't. I was specifically told by Sharkwerks it was a polarity thing, but can't find any reference on this forum on DIY. Any help is appreciated.

Quite simply, there are two wires. Swap them. It could be cutting and splicing the wires, or removing the pins and reinstalling them, whatever. If you are unsure of your ability to change the wiring, find a friend who can.

Thanks Patrick. That is what I assumed, but didn't want to "dig in" until I got others' opinions. Appreciate it.

Thanks for the Kind words. Back to your question, i must admit that is the first time i have ever heard that switching the polarity.Alex knows his stuff so if it suggests it i would try it. Simply cut the 2 wires, and hook them back up the opposite way they were. You should solder the connections and protect them with shrink tube.What you can try first is taking the connection from the car, and hook up temporary wires( be carfull here not to let them touch as you can short them out and pop the fuse) Then you take the new brake light and those temporary wires and attach those to the leads on the new brake light.Try them both ways to see if this clears up your issue. Good luck and let us know how it works out.

Chaning the wiring should not help IMO. It still takes a hot and a ground to make a circuit, no matter which way they are passing through the lamp. Just my humble opinion.

...unless your are working with LEDs. The "D" portion of LED will any allow the current flow in one direction. I agree, Paul has one of the best looking 996's around. I cannot wait to see what he does to his TT.

The 996 rear light does not require polarity, but the clears (we sell 'em) do. Swap the pins in the new light or splice the wires the other way. Piece of cake.

Been there - done that. You MUST change the polarity for the light in the spoiler to work. Just like Eric said, either splice the wires coming from the spoiler and switch them or pull out the pins from the light and switch them. Congratulations on being **** enough to buy 2 of the smoked lights (just like me)!!!

Be aware that if you change all brake lights to leds as I did your cruise control will not work. I had to add a load resistor in parallel with the brake leds.

I bought two smoked brake lights from Carnewal. Installed both, one fixed and one on spoiler, both work fine with no change in polarity.

My spoiler brake light plug had the correct polarity, but the directions that came with the smoked light had a warning that installation may require a reversal of polarity in the either the wires or the socket. My impression is that wiring to the spoiler brake light socket (and maybe the trunk mounted one, also) is random in the factory harness .... since its does not matter to incandescent bulbs. Hence the heads up for a possible swap in Sharky's instructions.

Thanks again for all of the feedback. Anyone have more info on the cruise control not working? That is a bad consequence. Further, Is it really as simply as pulling the pins out of the LED light (for the lid) and swaping them? That wouldn't seem to change the current flow, but rather just the pin. Is the only real solution to splice the wires and switch them? Anyone have a link to some pictures of DIY?

In Direct Current, flow is always one-way .... negative to positive, I believe. Many DC components, especially lights, do not care which way it come through them .... as long as it passes through. As your situation stands, your car has the current flow going in the wrong direction for the diode portion of the Light Emitting Diodes that you are using to replace the plain light bulb. A diode is a one way check valve for DC current. If you feed DC backwards through a normal light bulb ... no big deal. If you feed it backwards through a diode, it will not pass through. Stops. Dead .... just as if you cut one of the wires. By switching the pins in the brake light connector, you remedy this wrong direction flow by changing the terminals of the positive and negative leads. Now the current is going the proper direction to pass through the diode. The same thing can be accomplished by cutting and cross-connecting the wires between the connector and the LED brake light (but don't do both methods, or you'll be right back where you started).

hey guys sorry I've been away at a show.. Just wanted to make sure this got taken care of. It's pretty fidly but all that needs to be done is to change the two pins on the connector/harness around (swap em). It's fiddly and be gentle!

I've heard of the cruise control not working after a flash (because of mismatched software) before but otherwise it's pretty rare. The wiring harness is seperate for those Either way, I usually just sell the ones that are plug and play. The one that goes in the wing is a bit fiddly having to change the polarity of the pins and hence I try not to sell those unless we do it here... I think that one was "free" so you can keep it any case as an extra or if you do try to swap the pins just be gentle..

Thanks Alex. I can't thank you enough for all your help. Hope you had a great time at the show!!!

Heya Kevin, seriously my pleasure! It was pretty crazy.. there was a LOT of HP out there and more to come as a result. I didn't even have my car there. Probably a good thing since all of the Lambo and Ferrari guys would have been upset with my car setting off their car alarms anyways...

When I installed my LED brake lights I only had to swap cables on the spoiler. Nevertheless I had no issues with cruise control thereafter. Thorsten