By simply adding an extra bulb socket to the light bar of the tail light assembly you go from two brake light's to four brake light's. This mod will take about 20 minutes at most, and the results are excellent.

Here are the lights marked to prevent me goofing up. The three that are marked are the tail, brake, and back up light's. This is driver's side lights. Notice the open spot on the bar, that's the inboard side and where you install the extra plastic bulb holder.


Here it is after being connected. I soldered them together, but you can use a cable splice device or cut them and splice them. I have since added a liquid rubber compond around solder joint.


Here is the new brake light's on a very sunny, hot, and humid day. :p I think it was about 102*F in the garage with 98% humidity. This mod will have no effect on cruise control.


Many thanks to Bruce Bonds for sending the old harness from which I used two bulb holder's for this mod. You're the man Bruce, now add another set of brake light's to your car.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Nice mod.

I mounted one of those aftermarket strobe light sets in the two blanks. I think the strobe effect helps wake some tailgaters up. Seems a shame to leave those extra taillight sockets empty.

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Diesel-guy

I started to do that, but was informed it was illegal for me to instal them in the car. Something only allowed on emergency vehicles and school buses.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

How about the flashing tail light bulbs you can get for motorcycles?

I need a couple sockets to to that on mine........don't have any spares....need to see if they have them on fastlane.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

For some reason I recall that that empty socket was for euro spec rear fog light. Can anyone correct me on this?

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

No they can't, because that's what it was there for. However it makes an excellent place for 2nd brake light.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

that is correct...all 80's german cars come with dual rear fog lamps, bright ones, caus we have LOTS of fog during the early mornings.

Mercedes owners, I know this extra set of stop lites in the rear of my W123 have save me from getting rear ended. They are awesome - really. I have one set left, $5.00 shipped. Also, Bajaman and myself are going to finish pulling the engine and transmission from my 83 W123 parts car. Have some really nice parts available, hood, grille, front bumper, trunk lid, battery tray, rear doors. Color is midnight blue. Let me know if you can use something.

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

haha but i did it anyway. there just so awsome at night to scare people into thinking there getting pulled over.

whacker...

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

haha

I hope there is not a problem bumping up an old thread. I now see this modification as a regular offering on ebay. I was planning to do this with the junk yard sockets I gathered last week. Reading this thread seems to prove the extra current draw is not a danger to the wiring.

However, I want to make these extra tail lights which would be on for a longer period of time. I've already monted a high brake light on the rear glass at the package shelf. Following my wife as she drove the 123 home the other night, I noticed we had the weakest tail light on the highway. I more concerned about being seen on the highway now.

Will the wiring handle the extra current for using the fog light spots to create a total of 4 tail lights?

Anything newer on Sam's idea for 1157 sockets and would that overload the wiring?

Charles

I installed a high mount brake light for a chevy van in my back window and it made a lot of difference to the braking but I wanted more.

So I installed two more brake lights in the sockets closest to the license plate and that helped. But I still wanted more. The lights seemed weak.

I have sold the MB 123 since but just before I sold it, I experimented with LED lights and if you buy the red with as many LEDs on it that you can fit into the housing, you will have bright brake lights, for sure. You may have to do some adapting to get them inside the housing. But they do last a long time and they are very bright. Do not buy the white LEDs as they are not very bright through a red lense. But if you buy the red, they really stand out and people take notice of them.

Tradonguy - Can you tell us more about your success with installing LEDs as add-on brake lights... especially P/N(s) that specifically identify what you used... and your cost and source for such parts.
I've played around with various LED lighting projects and know there is a lot of "junk" out there!
Regards,

Bump!!!

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.