Third brake light, required?

BigClay

BigClay

Knower of useless ZJ things
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Location
Winston-Salem
I have a 98 TJ, it came from the factory with a thrid brake light. Does that mean it has to have one to be street legal? How about to pass inspection? I am not talking about a burnt out bulb, I am talking about removing the light all together.
 
My understanding is, if the housing is present the light has to work. Our '98 is missing that assembly, so you should be fine without yours.
 
Cool, thanks for the info!
 
We were told in inspection class the new rule is you only need one functioning brake light to pass inspection anyway.
 
hahaha one? really? Well thats a game changer. I dont know if this applies to inspections but I was told by a DMV officer one time that if it was on the vehicle it had to work.
 
RobMcBee said:
hahaha one? really? Well thats a game changer. I dont know if this applies to inspections but I was told by a DMV officer one time that if it was on the vehicle it had to work.
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Heard the same here just like 3 weeks ago??? Even told that just one tag light is insufficient?
 
I wonder if passing inspection and what is considered ticketable (is that even a word) is different.
 
The story we were told is that a drug dealer got pulled due to brake light out found drugs. In court his lawyer said it was an illegal stop n search cause nc law hasn't been updated since the 30s when most cars only had one brake light anyway.

I have no idea if that's vs or not but that's what we were told was the reasoning. In any event if the whole housing isn't there then they can't get you for a burned out bulb and if they did its not a moving violation so usually the da will throw it out if you fix the problem. I'd not worry about the third brake light personally.
 
The real reason is all of the LED tail light assemblies. If one little bulb went out, you'd have to replace the whole assembly to pass inspection. Not anymore. It is a clarification of what working tail light means.
 
I did keep the 3rd brake light off the TJ just in case. It's up in the attic of the garage somewhere. It has passed inspection every year regardless.
 
Ditch it and get one of those brake light things that slips in your receiver and plugs into a trailer plug just for inspections/mall crawling.
 
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