Lift gate brake light going out intermittently

[Hyperjetta]

I discovered the other day that the brake light in the lift gate of my 2018 stinger gt AWD was out. Not just one bulb, but the whole thing. I popped the plastic cover off to get a better look at it and found the wiring to look as if someone tapped into it to install something aftermarket. I am the second owner of the car so it is entirely possible that the previous owner modified the car somehow. My question is, does anyone else's look like this?

I should add that I do have the driver assist package, which I thought was only an option in the GT1 and GT2 models, not the GT0.

In any case, I jiggled the wiring a bit and the brake light started working again so it looks like it's just a loose connection. Should be easy enough to fix. I'm just a little concerned if this is the stock wiring since it is pretty loose.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I'm not going to dig into mine to compare, sorry (not sorry)! But that looks like a slapped together mess to my novice eyes. Yes, undoubtedly a loose connection; or a wire that has flexed under vibration long enough to break inside the insulation.

 

[BlaydeX15]

Oof, that's a rough install. Does your car do the blinking brake lights thing? Looks like that might be a (poorly) dealer installed brake blinky kit.

 

[DiabloStinger]

Interesting... i'd say the previous owner has a roofline spoiler with a light or the dealer installed something like a moron.

 

[Hyperjetta]

Oof, that's a rough install. Does your car do the blinking brake lights thing? Looks like that might be a (poorly) dealer installed brake blinky kit.

It sure does. I take it that is not a stock feature?

At least it seems like it should be pretty straight forward to fix. I will probably shop around for a new connector to wire up and go from there. If you want something done right...

 

[BlaydeX15]

It sure does. I take it that is not a stock feature?

At least it seems like it should be pretty straight forward to fix. I will probably shop around for a new connector to wire up and go from there. If you want something done right...

Yeah, not stock. It's a supposed "Safety" feature, grabs attention or something. Some dealers install them on the lot. Looks like the hot wire was split, it goes into a module out of sight and comes back down into the other side of hot. The ground wire is tapped to be ground for both the module and the light. If you don't care about the blinkies, you can probably just hook the stock wires back into the harness. If you want to fix it the lazy way, I bet your short is in the aftermarket red wire where it goes into the sleeve. Would be fairly easy to redo it right, and bend the connector back the other way so the wire isn't kinked so badly.