Where are the brake lights supposed to be?

[DoggieHowser]

I never really noticed this before but noticed two 4x4s (a Nissan and Suzuki) with the brake lights very far down on the bumper where most rear fog lights are. The odd thing is that neither had a third brake light and both still had a tail light cluster where they are supposed to be but the lights never came on when they braked. Odd too cos the authorities are so anal about aftermarket xenon kits but I found this even more distracting.

[team_v]

I believe they have to be visible from a certain angle to be legal.

So when you see those off-roaders with the ones in the bumper (suzuki is most notable) they actually had to include the bumper lights in place of the tailights in the body to make it clear ADRs.

Happy to be proven wrong but this is the story i was told when my brother had his Daihatsu Feroza

[DoggieHowser]

In these two instances, the tail light clusters never came on when the cars slowed down. Only the ones below.

[team_v]

Okay, did a bit of research and it turns out the lower ones are required to be used for ADR's.

In Australia (and other countires it seems) the ADR (Australian Design Rules) state that the rear lights need to be visible upto 45 degreesfrom directly behind (or something to that affect). Because the rear door mounted spare does not allow you to see the right hand tail lights at 45 degrees, they are illegal... That is why Australia has the bumper mounted lights and anyone who wires up the body lights is technically making an illegal modification. That being said, as long as the "legal" Bumper lights are maintained, most resonable authorities won't bother you about it... but they can.

[Tom87]

in the case of many 4wds with spare tyres mounted to the back door the ADR specifies that both tail lights be visible from either side of the vehicle. Result is that for our market (and only a few others around the world) they move the tail light cluster to the lower bumper which sticks out more than the body clusters and typically this allows the vehicle to comply. Jeep wranglers as an example get around this by simply having tail light clusters which stick out from the body. The current generation mitsubishi pajero and toyota prado have the spare tyre recessed somewhat into the tailgate.

They should all have a 3rd brake light. On some vehicles it simply may not be obvious until it turns on.

[DoggieHowser]

Pretty sure the third brake light on both cars were off. For a while I thought they had switched the wiring from the third brake light to the bumpers.

[Guest001]

Okay, did a bit of research and it turns out the lower ones are required to be used for ADR's.

Absolutely correct

In my Patrol I wired up the blanks in the originals as well and have seen a few others as well.


The ones I HATE are the IDIOTS who run around with their rear fogs turned on, especially Pajeros.

Probably have the front fogs on as well

They look like they have the brake lights on, especially at night

Morons

[Twin_Dad]

If I remember rightly the earlier model Pajeros actually enabled the higher light clusters when a trailer plug was connected.

[Guest001]

If I remember rightly the earlier model Pajeros actually enabled the higher light clusters when a trailer plug was connected.

Is the newer ones that have the rear fogs that are so bright that at night they block out the brake lights which are right beside them, which makes things very dangerous
They have the lights up at waistline level unlike the Patrols and others with spares mounted on the rear doors