Wiring in third brake light on bestop help.

I'm trying to wire in my third brake light on my bestop. I tapped into the driver side brake light. I obviously dont have it connected correctly because I get a pulsating third brake light when the brake is applied without the headlights on, and with the headlights on, I dont have a third tail light on the canopy. For the sake of clarity, the OEM third brake still works correctly.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I thought I'd save myself some time and effort by not having to crawl under the truck and tap into the trailer wiring harness. If all else fails, I may have to try that option, but I think that will result in my third brake light coming on with my headlights.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

Have a volt/ohm meter? Find which pin is ground first then identify the other wires, tail/brake...

 

Did you tap the blue and white/black wires?

http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old...toyewd/06toypdf/ewd/2006/tacoma/h/em01d12.pdf

 

I tapped into the three wires going into the tail/brakelight bulb.

I used a four pin trailer harness as a quick connect between my tap and the third brake light in the canopy. I used a trailer harness tester to find out which wire was tail and which was brake.

I was able to get a solid third brake light with the headlights off, but still nothing with the headlights on. While I was trying to figure out how to get power to the third brake light with the head lights on, I managed to blow the tail and stop light fuses. Wiring is definitely not one of my strong suits, I may just pay someone to do this for me...

 

You can't use the trailer light connector because the left and right trailer brake light/turn signals are separated.

If you connected the 2 topper brake wires into 3 truck wires, you're doing it wrong.

Connect the 2 topper brake light wires to the blue wire and the white/black wire and it will work.

 

The topper light has three wires too. I'm not claiming to know what I'm doing, but that's never stopped me before...

 

Definitely doing it wrong, not going to argue that point.

 

A 3rd brake light only needs 2 wires. Does the topper have an inside dome light? If so, is the 3rd wire for that? Did you get any information with the topper that tells what the wires are for?

 

No dome light. One wire will give me a pulsating brake light, and the other will give me a solid. No instructions whatsoever with the taillight. I'll take a good look at the wiring diagram you linked to tomorrow and maybe give it a redo and see what happens. I'm not really at all familiar with 12v wiring. Am I wrong in assuming that one of the wires is a neutral, and the other should be hot in a two wire system?

 

Use the wire that gives solid and use the ground only.

No need to use the 3rd wire

 

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing, but that only gives me a third brake light with the headlights off. When i turn them on i dont have a third brake light any more.

 

Then you didn’t tap into the correct wire. I have tapped into the brake light on my last second gen and had no issues, you only tapped ONE wire from behind the tail light correct? Cause it sounds like you either tapped more than one or the wrong wire

 

I tapped into the three wires going into the tail light bulb. I should only have tapped into the one that controls brake light function? Should I just be trying to wire the third brake light in parallel with with the brake light I'm tapping into?

 

Won't I need to tap into at least two wires in order to wire the brake light in parallel?

 

You need 2 wires. One of them is ground which you can pick up anywhere metal on the truck. So, technically, you can use only one wire from the tail light to the new third brake light.
Edit:
@Muddinfun told you what wires to tap in post #3 in asking his question...
If the new light is LED, which it sounds like it is having the flash option, pick the option you want, solid or flashing, cap the other wire then connect the 2 remaining. If it doesn't work, swap the wires.

 

Tap into the blue and white/black. 2 wires. Done.

 

Yup

Ideally there should be 3 wires

Ground/dim/ and bright

Ground to frame....dim to tail light and the brightest would go to the brake lights.

 

Here's the color codes for the Bestop 3rd brake light.

Black = Negative
White= Positive - - - Steady Full Brake Light
Brown = Positive - - - Scrolling Brake Light

Use the white OR brown. Not both.

Apparently some 2nd gen Tacos use green/red for the brake light. So, it could be blue or green/red. The negative will definitely be white/black

 

Thanks guys, I will give it another try today. I appreciate the help, I definitely need it.

 

I need to do this as well and I’m surprised that there isn’t a YouTube video with this to be found Haha.