dumb taillight question

I'm sure it's been mentioned but I can't find it. Why the extra opening in the taillight? Can you just add the extra socket and bulb and have light? The circuit board already has the contacts. What was it that IPD used to sell to have more taillights light up? Was that for 85 and older or could it be used on 86 and later cars? thanks

not sure what the stock circuit board has that missing bulb wired to, but I hardwired my tails and made the 3 lower panels the 5w tail lights while the upper red is a 21w brake light. Works fine and looks p cool

also to note, the oem tails from my car did not have a bulb spot in the lower center spot. It was blocked off. But the aftermarket tails i put in do.

Ipd sold a kit that let you add a brake light to the lower outer corner on each lite. It gave you four brake lights by using a double filament bulb in the lower outer corner on each light. On the earlier six panel lights the upper inner is the brake light. I've had that on my turbo for many years.

I would add an extra 5w bulb to that middle lower spot. on the circuit board it's wired to the parking/running lights so is easy to add like described above.

I need to double check to see if the lights are OE or aftermarket. I do want to keep the circuit boards and not have to fab up a harness for the light sockets. On my 89 the lower outer are already the brake light/ taillight. Interesting that all the boards are set up for 6 lights but not all lamps have 6 outlets.

I had the iPd kit (actually a recreation of it) on my original '81 242 that I upgraded to Cibie tails from the Bosch units. With the 3rd brake light that I also added, I kept blowing fuse 6. Wound up replacing the passenger side taillamp assembly and the driver's side circuit board with 1985-on parts. Moved the brake lights to the outer corners. Every 242 I've owned since then, I've updated to the 1985-on setup. But, I never wired in the rear fog lamps until I got my current 242.

None of the tails actually have a socket for the third tail bulb, but some have a larger hole than others do. The 1979-84 assemblies usually have a small hole in the middle, and the 1985-93 assemblies have a hole that's almost large enough for the third socket.