Electrical Question

[spudz29212MKIII]

Okay, So the spoiler along with the third brake light were removed from my 87 by the previous owner. My question is: what do I do to get rid of the taillight failure light on the dash? It will only come on and stay on the first time I hit the brake pedal after starting up. Is there some way to fool the computer or wire the connection so i can get rid of the warning light? I am no electrician but, would you ground it? short it out? or what?
Thanks for the help.

 

[jetjock]

Welcome to SM. You have 6 choices:

1) Defeat the box (remove and bypass it).

2) Open it up and recalibrate for the missing lamp (done with a resistor change).

3) Put a CHMSL back on, either with or without the spoiler.

4) Connect a lamp and let it hang somewhere.

5) Connect a (big) resistor across the wires and let it hang somewhere.

6) Disconnect, remove, or tape over the dash indicator.

I recommend solution number 2. Number 3 is also OK. The others are generally done by those unable or unwilling to fix things right. If you're one you'll find plenty of company here...

 

[rayall01]

One other option is to install the third brake light from a NA supra, one that has no wing. I think legally, you have to replace it anyway.

 

[92TealSupra]

Take out the taillight lamp bulb in your cluster.

I would never do that, I would personally fix the issue at hand.

 

[lewis15498]

like jetcock said you can remove/bypass the failure sensor. I did a writeup on this last year, if you have any questions feel free to pm me.
http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82576
good luck

 

[spudz29212MKIII]

I live in South Carolina. They really dont care if I have a third brake light at all, hell most people have red tape over their broken lights. Its real slack haha. Anyways I dont wish to bypass anything or take the warning bulb out so I think I will just go the easy way and connect a light to it and let it hang somewhere. Problem is I dont have the light or the connector. Would it be a pain to find one to replace it or should i just wire another socket to it like a cheap one from parts store? or is there an issuse of it being different? Thanks for the help guys, really.

 

[mkiiSupraMan18]

I'd remove the bulb from the dash and be over it... it's not like it's a check engine light. :dunno:

 

[92TealSupra]

I live in South Carolina. They really dont care if I have a third brake light at all, hell most people have red tape over their broken lights. Its real slack haha. Anyways I dont wish to bypass anything or take the warning bulb out so I think I will just go the easy way and connect a light to it and let it hang somewhere. Problem is I dont have the light or the connector. Would it be a pain to find one to replace it or should i just wire another socket to it like a cheap one from parts store? or is there an issuse of it being different? Thanks for the help guys, really.

You don't have the wing do you? I was going to say take the harness from there, but it sounds like you don't have that. If not I would just get a connector and plug it in. Maybe extended it and run it on the rear fender inside the wheel well where the jack goes.

 

[spudz29212MKIII]

No I dont have the wing or the bulb w/connector. Would it be hard/too expensive to find a used/new connector? or just wire a new one there instead?

From toyotapartscheap.com a high mount stop light assembly is $66 thats horrible.

 

[rayall01]

No I dont have the wing or the bulb w/connector. Would it be hard/too expensive to find a used/new connector? or just wire a new one there instead?

From toyotapartscheap.com a high mount stop light assembly is $66 thats horrible.

Get the parts from a salvage yard, and do it right. You may be able to get away with it in your area, but that's not gonna help keep you from getting rear ended.

 

[jetjock]

Appears to be around 5% over the long term. Down from about 8% when they were mandated. Seems they don't do much for fatal crashes though:

http://tinyurl.com/d6zmw8

Fwiw...

 

[rayall01]

Appears to be around 5% over the long term. Down from about 8% when they were mandated. Seems they don't do much for fatal crashes though:

http://tinyurl.com/d6zmw8

Fwiw...

5% is better than no%, and doing it right, if you can, is better than hacking. I do it right whenever I can, so that's the way I recommend it.