Brake Lights Kill Switch

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Ever need to backup a few feet when it’s dark and wish you can kill your brake lights?? That happens to me often. So this is how I installed a toggle switch for my brake lights.

Disclaimer: This may not be legal in your state so please do your research and do this at your own risk.

Second Disclaimer: You are playing with your cars electrical wiring, if you mess up… it’s on you! This may even effect your warranty!

I have a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan. Unfortunately, as the vehicle is so new and as the 2013 Caravan wiring is different, I was unable to find an easy way to just cut one or two wires. I wanted to put a kill switch directly to the stock fuse, but even if you pull ALL the stock fuses that are for the brake lights… the brake lights still work!!!

So I did this the hard way. I went directly to the source. I disassembled the tail lights and the tailgate cover (to get to the third brake light).

To take off the tailgate cover… unscrew the 4 bolt and pull very hard. It will pop off. Just make sure all the plastic clips are in their place.

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All the lights have a black wire running to them. This is the ground wire. I cut all the ground wires.

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You will then want to use 18 gauge wire to extend both sides of the cut wires. You will need to route them all to one place. In the 2014 Dodge Grand caravan there is a lot of empty space in the driver side rear compartment that hold the tire pump. There is also an access hole there that will allow you to route the driver side taillights directly through that hole.

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I routed the wire from the passenger side to the driver side by lifting the cover near the latch.

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Once the wires are all routed you will need someone to sit in the drivers seat and put the car in reverse and hold the brakes. You will need to determine which wires provide ground to which. You will need to connect each wire one by one to each other until you determine which wire provides power to which wire. You will then make 2 sets of wires. One set will provide power to the other based on your testing. When one set is touching the other, all power should be on, when they are not touching… nothing should be on. You will also need to conduct this testing with your turn signals. When done… it should look something like below…

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You will then connect a 14 gauge wire to each wire set and route the 2 wires to your toggle switch (mounted somewhere near the steering wheel for easy access).

On the 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan I had another issue. Whenever I use my remote to open my doors the horn honks twice and the headlights turn on for 2 minutes. This can be turn off by the dealer but I just made kill switches for the headlights and the horn using the same theory as above – by cutting and routing the black wires to toggle switches.

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So in total I have three toggle switches – one for the headlights, one for the horn, and one for the three brake lights, reverse lights, and turn signals.

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P.S. Don’t pay attention to the large switch on the very left, this is my isolator switch and has nothing to do with this write-up.


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