14ct200h

Anyone have a picture of their inner tail light on during night? Can we put a led light into this? Mine has nothing on, is this normal?

E46CT

Normal. US regulation prohibits the lights from being on a panel that moves (such as tailgates or trunk lids)

I'd love to make it light up too. I imagine it's not that hard. but just involves too much work than i'd like to put into it.

fiveainone

You could always give this a try and let us know the results

14ct200h

Sponsorship and I'll install it? :-)

E46CT

I'd consider a nice aftermarket tail light option but those look like garbage in normal light. You can even see some of the cheapness there in that marketing photo

ddonalds

The small clear section on the passenger side of the tailgate has a bulb in it on mine

spiral

haha, i never thought about this. damn you, i stared at every car on my way to work this morning. One thing i noticed, the inner lights on other cars were illuminated when the lights were on and also housed the reverse lights. So i take that to mean that the outer lights are regulated for turn indicators and braking??

E46CT

Yes there's a ton considered when lighting is designed. Little is left to chance.

The regulation in question specifically has to do with stop lamps being required to be on a fixed rigid body. So nothing movable.

So Lexus could've lit the inner rears, but that would increase cost and probably not look so good when the brakes are pressed. So seems they just left it blank altogether. it does look weird blank though. I'd love to rig some LEDs up to it.

sjw91

I was behind an Audi Q5 today, and this thread came to mind. All the lights are on the hatch, not the body. Are SUVs exempt from the regulation?

E46CT

I believe in those cases, regulation require backup lights to be on the bumper.

sjw91

That makes sense. Thanks.

E46CT

Yeah makes little sense in terms of practicality. I think they're trying to prevent the off chance that someone goes to home depot, loads something in the back and drives w/ the hatch open and has no brake lights or turn signals.

sjw91

Exactly. The Audi may possibly have a wider opening, but no one would see their brake lights if they're bringing home a new water heater.