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Brake lights wiring for LED resistors

7997 Views 19 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  JoeyE
Hey all,

so I’ve been replacing my old halogen bulbs in my 2012 Fiat 500 Sport with LEDs (turn signals and brake lights done so far). I had no issue with the turn signals as the lights I got are Canbus ready. However, for my brake lights, I’ve been having issues with getting the car’s computer to stop warning me to “Check stop lamps”. I have some resistors which I did my best to install and wire up correctly using wiring diagrams I found online. These were the only two I could find for the external lights (courtesy of a post on this forum a few years back!) I think I got the left one wired up right, because when I put the LED on that side but kept the halogen on the right, the dashboard had no errors, but I must have messed something up on the right side because my dashboard lights up with the error once I put the LED in. I can barely read what it says for the right tail light wiring, but I thought I read “green/yellow” for RT STP LMP, so I wired the resistor to the black and green/yellow wires, which clearly wasn’t the right move. Anyone have any advice? Did I wire it to the wrong wires?
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Where do we mount the resistors after connecting them to the brake lights? trying to find space..


Hey to anyone who is interested. I have solved the issue. The wiring diagrams I followed and uploaded here are CORRECT. The splicing clips I used weren’t very sharp and didn’t break through the insulation of the green and yellow wire, which is the positive wire for the right brake light. After pulling it apart, removing a tiny bit of the insulation and replacing, it works perfectly, with no dashboard errors.

If you’re planning to do this to your own 500, the process with the turn signals was as simple as changing a bulb. Plug and play. The brake lights, which were the thorn in my side, would have been just as easy had I bought LEDs that are “Canbus ready”, or in other words have a resistor built into them. The ones I bought didn’t have that, so I had to add one (link to the listing i used) in series with the brake lights. This is a fairly simple process, it just requires you to be able to fit the resistor under the tail light housing, which was fairly easy as well, just took a couple minutes. My car looks awesome now, especially with the crisp on/off of my bright turn signals. Good luck to you when you try this in the future.
Has anyone tried adding a resistor to the third brake light? Which is positive, negative, and ground?
It’s a bit of a pain for sure, I managed to fit it in a small gap between the housing and the metal body of the car
I am about to try installing resistors so I can add LEDs for the brake light and was wondering if I could use just 1 resistor that is 50watt 6ohm? Also have 21w resistors from Philips and thought I could use two of those as I read they don’t get that hot, maybe 80 degrees. Would like to avoid using 2 x 50watt 6ohm if possible.
Is the brake light on 1 circuit? In my 2015 sport, if I insert an led bulb in the third brake light, it won’t work and the dash will
say check stop lamp.
I used the smaller resisters used for motorcycles.

Amazon.com: 2 Pcs 10W LED Light Load Resistor In-line Motorcycle Resistors LED Turn Signal Indicator Fix Error Flash Controller : Automotive

View attachment 114798
Still working great. Adds just enough resistance to stop the CAN messages. Small and easy to tuck between the body and housing.

Good luck.

Have a good day.
Thanks!
I used the smaller resisters used for motorcycles.

Amazon.com: 2 Pcs 10W LED Light Load Resistor In-line Motorcycle Resistors LED Turn Signal Indicator Fix Error Flash Controller : Automotive

View attachment 114798
Still working great. Adds just enough resistance to stop the CAN messages. Small and easy to tuck between the body and housing.

Good luck.

Have a good day.
I tried installing resistors today and everything looked so good until I started getting parking lamp out errors. The parking lights would go out on 1 or both sides and sometimes they would stay on but still give an error message. I’m wondering if I should install resistors on the parking lamp wire and ground? I have 5w resistors for those
I would give it a try. The bulbs I used had resistors built-in, so I had no problem with the parking lights, but was still getting the warning on the brake lights, which is the reason I went with the smaller watt resistors.

Have a good day.
Thanks for the help
I ended up using 1157 LEDs from underground lighting that user Robwseattle posted about and they work perfectly in my 2015 sport.

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