Stupid Question
 

Just swapped the taillights out in my Box for LED ones, and noticed that the brakes lights only work with key in the ignition. Is this normal? I don't remember what it did before, but that strikes me as odd. They work fine with the key in.
Thomas

It's normal. My Boxster does this as well, and so did my VWs and my Mercedes.

Not dumb at all but I sure was when I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out why my brake lights didn't come on when I stepped on the brakes. Checked bulbs, then fuses, then wiring, then searched the web. Duh, the ignition needs to be on. But on all my other cars, the brake light comes on regardless.

Great! Im glad I checked here first! I was about to pull the new taillights and see if I blew something!

Share pics of the new lights. :D

i had a similar experience learning that only the drivers side rear fog light works-thought i was missing a bulb now i have a spare..

Been struggling with same issue trying to replace the regular bulbs with LEDs. The tail lights may not have enough resistance. You may need to add a load resistor (6 ohms 50w).

Although I did the side marker to blinker conversion and it seems that if a ground is connected to the system it only works with cruising lights or higher on. With the ground connected to the body, in other words a good ground to the chasis, it will work as a blinker only whether lights are on or not. However, as a consequence, the side marker function is inactive so not sure it will pass inspection like that.

On the rear LEDs, I have not tried "butchering" my car to get these work. I REALLY WANT LED bulbs in back, have cool designs already bought….but cannot get them to work.

Maybe we could all put our heads together and solve the LED problem? There are smarter people who have done this….where are you?

You already answered the LED problem, you need the resistors, LED's simply don't provide the necessary draw that conventional bulbs do.

The Depo units must have some resistance built in, as they work fine with any issues. The side bulbs are an odd issue , as they could have just simply drilled a hole in the inside lateral housing and the mini bulb would fit thru. I may do this as a winter project.
Otherwise,My biggest gripe was the depo lights wires that plug into the oem wiring harness were too short to reach, and after several attempts to get them to fit, I cut the wiring, and soldered on some extension wire. Also, there is no room for the left rear fog light, although I never used it anyways.

Not sure what you guys mean by inspection? In California at least, the only we have to do is smog our global warmers every 2 years, the state could care less about the lights, and the CHP don't care either unless your driving around with no headlights.

Here's another pic of the lights. I'll take some more when if I get away from the family this weekend.
I'll try to get an evening shot so you can see the lights in action. They are reeeaaalllyyy bright. I looked at my rear view at a stop light last night, and I could see the girl behind me fully illuminated in red!
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Actually did the whole car with new lights, the old ones were getting faded.
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Looks great !