I've been meaning to perform this modification for a while. Here's the deal: the BMW E36 3 Series cars sold in the US (ti compact model excluded) have a somewhat counterintuitive stop lamp layout. These cars each feature three panels on each tail assembly; arranged horizontally, there's an inner, middle, and outer red panel. Typically, the innermost panel is the only one illuminated under braking, and the outer two are only illuminated when the parking lamps are on.
The thing is that the outer panels are fitted with dual-filament bulbs. This makes sense in Europe (where auto manufacturers actually make use of rear fog lamps) but is unused here in the US. In fact, the connector that drives the lamp assemblies has the driver pin for those filaments completely removed.
So as you can see in the above photo, I've set the outer set of bulbs to work as stop lamps in concert with the inner bulbs and center high-mount stop lamp. The middle bulbs are only fitted with a single filament, so I wasn't able to get those to go any brighter.
The look here is a good deal more European. I dig on it.
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