Hey bud so did this fox get you out of replacing the diode or not? Thanks for reply.A little late to the party but hopefully it will help someone. I purchased a red LED light strip from Amazon. Cut to size and replaced the older light strip with it. I cut the wires and removed the old light strip. Got the new LED strip and tied the wires to the old wires which were still attached to the connection and voila ! Third brake light nice and bright and under $9 bucks !!