2011 CX9 Newbie - Dumb question, what are these red tail lights for?

[oldmazda626man]

OK, I feel very stupid asking this + I did look in the manual.

Umm, to the right of the brake lights, under the white backup lights, what do the red lights/reflectors do?

Are they simply unlit reflectors or parking lights or .... ? Image attached. Thanks.

Sorry for asking a dumb question.

 

[oldmazda626man]

Oops, image posted sideways. Apologies/

 

[mysleeper6]

Don't have a CX-9, but I'll try to help, lol. Is there a bulb in there (can't tell from the picture)? The Mazdaspeed6 (and other models, like the 3, I think) DO have non-lit reflectors, but they are "stand alones", and not connected to any other part of the rear light cluster. Are they position lights (come on when the lights are on?) My car has those also, but I wired them up as additional brake lights. Hope that helps.

 

[oldmazda626man]

Well. I looked and I don't see any LED lights, so assume they are "stand alones". I don't quite understand their function as they do not seem to illuminate or reflect? Props to you for wiring them up to the brake lights. Did you do it as LED lights?

 

[mysleeper6]

Well, if you are familiar with the back end of a speed 6, what I did wasn't so difficult. The stand alone reflectors are low on the bumper. I replaced them with smoked lens LED units (bought from the RPM Store) which I wired as turn signals. The running lights are circles on the outside edge of the trunk. Normally they just turn on when the headlights are on. I used the existing incandescent bulb but tapped off the third brakelight to give myself a fourth and fifth brakelight. And, I used how-to's from this site to do both mods. Here's a picture from before the mods as a reference.

 

[oldmazda626man]

Slick! Thanks!

 

[memasterac]

Mazda has gone CHEAP for 2010+ CX-9 so you are right they are simply two pieces of red lens without bulbs/wiring/LED whatsoever. 2007~2009 CX-9 has bulbs (not LED) in them as running lights. But at least you get a better/brighter LED tail/brake lights for 2010+. The LED pixels inside pre-2010 CX-9 are mostly crooked due to a bad design and bad quality control.