I had a kill switch for my brake lights about 2 years ago. Bad idea. I got rear-ended after forgetting to turn them back on. Not my fault, but still an accident I didnt need have.
I had a kill switch for my brake lights about 2 years ago. Bad idea. I got rear-ended after forgetting to turn them back on. Not my fault, but still an accident I didnt need have.
It's in case you forget to turn your lights off when you parkOriginally Posted by (in)Sanity
But it leaves the rest of the lights on...
So? you're supposed to have the rest of the lights on when you're parked with the engine running. Also, the headlights use significantly more electricity than the others.
I was just going to make a post about this! Good thing I checked first.
The solution (in my opinion) is, as someone else already said, to use a simple momentary switch so you never have to worry about leaving them off. Also, you don't have to worry about your tail lights not working because what you do it wire the momentary switch in line with your brake light switch. You need to get a momentary switch that will open the circuit. This will effectivly sever your brake light switch from the brake lights and then they won't go on. I plan on doing this to my car next weekend when I install my Blinder. I really like the idea of being able to completely black-out my car incase I ever pass a cop and he gets my speed and I have to jump off at the next exit. Without brake lights it would be very hard to see where you went.
I'll post back after I do this mod to let you know how it went. Oh, and a toggle switch is not such bad news if you have a newer car that alerts you if your brake lights are not working. Hell, I have a '92 and it will display "Brake lights failure" and keep flashing it until you shut the car off.
I had some electrical problem with my tail lights/brake lights and had to wire a switch to my tail lights so I wouldn't have to get in the trunk every time I wanted the lights to come on. Since I was doing that I put a switch into my brake light circuit. Both switches are lighted so when my tail lights are on the switch is lit up red, and every time I hit my brakes the blue switch turns on unless it is switched off. The blue switch is pretty bright and I can see it light up in my peripheral vision at night, and most of the times during the day. If I am of the freeway and it is safe to do so I turn my brake lights off just in case. So far I haven't run into any problems with forgetting to turn them on, every time I exit the freeway I check that switch, along with every time I get in my car. With the setup that I have I can have my headlights on without any tail lights. I was parked on a hill in my friends neighborhood and my ebrake sucks, so I would either have to turn the car off and put it in gear to stop it from rolling or just hold the brake, the switch helped so I could hold the brake and not annoy people with the bright lights.
I think this is a good idea folks. Especially for our Ontario users!
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