LED 3rd brake light write up

[Raffaelli]

 LED third brake light modification.

 To preface, my 1994 Z34 Lumina was driving down the road, and the third brake light trim cover fell onto the back seat. Upon a little inspection, the 3rd brake light housing was in sorry shape, and had been glued together in the past.

 Ordered a used light off eBay.

 
 So the factory bulbs are halogen 891 bulbs. There are a handful of sellers on Amazon that say they sell led versions of them. I was skeptical that they would fit in the housing. 

 I had 194 led bulbs and sockets on hand, and decided to go with those.

 

 So the first thing, is to pop off the red lens, easy enough.

 Then use a uni-bit on a drill to open up the sockets to 5/8th inch

 

 From here, need to cut some lugs into the light housing for the 194 bulb sockets to thread into. 
 

 

 I used a small 3 sided file. Took all of 15 mins to do.

Then a little bit of wiring to do… splice wires and old connector together. 

 Clean it up, snap the lens on it, and enjoy.

 

 This took all of 30 mins to do, with stuff I had on hand. I’m not a fan of the oddball bulbs that were in it, and glad I changed them.

[GnatGoSplat]

Looks like a good mod to do.

They use the same oddball bi-pin bulbs in the Cutlass Supreme spoiler rack as well.

I would recommend using red LEDs, even behind a red lens.  You'll get a better color, especially since LEDs are a cooler color than the original halogens and tend to look even more faded behind a red lens than halogens.

The 194 socket will also fit larger T15 sized bulbs since they have the same wedge base.  You can use 921 LED replacements for more brightness which is always a good thing with brake lights.  I've tested some 921 LED replacements that are insanely bright.