LED tails? (Update: LED reverse lights installed!)

E28 technical advice asked and given! Troubleshooting, modifications and more.
e28Sean
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LED tails? (Update: LED reverse lights installed!)

Post by e28Sean »

Has anyone ever come up with an LED based tail light solution for our cars that looks stock but provides brighter tail/brake/reverse lamps?

Besides the usual "I don't wanna get rear ended" concerns, I often park in a poorly lit car park, and, quite frankly. The stock reverse lights leave a lot to be desired.

I'm aware of Shawn D's setup, but, my understanding is he hasn't produced a set in a while.


Update: Scroll down. LEDs installed. Other upgrades coming soon.
Last edited by e28Sean on Dec 30, 2013 6:33 PM, edited 1 time in total.
mooseheadm5
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Post by mooseheadm5 »

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=109181

You can start here. Not LED, but better than stock.

There are halogen lights you can install in place of your reverse lights.
bojangles
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Post by bojangles »

e28Sean
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Post by e28Sean »

Thanks for that bo :|

I am painfully aware of the ebay LED bulbs. 99% of these, quite frankly, are crap, which is why i was soliciting recommendations.

That said. I ordered up some LED bulbs that look promising. Once they arrive and I get 'em installed, i will report back.
LandCruzer94
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Post by LandCruzer94 »

I recall a few years ago stumbling across a youtube video of a guy with a full LED tail conversion for an e30 that used a stock housing. In addition, he had modifications that allowed them to strobe much like a police/service vehicle in a couple of different patterns.

I can't remember where it was though. Maybe that will help.
867535i
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Post by 867535i »

I just did a lighting project for school and through a lot of research, I found a really nice linear COB LED. Google Edison Opto Ediline4. I ordered the 6 watt warm white versionwhich are insanely bright if you look at it, like welding flash bright where you see spots for ten minutes. The manufacturer stopped making them and came out with a newer version but you can still get them at led tech in Germany. The newer version which I think they call the plcc is super bright as well.
Being over 3 watts, the general rule is that you'll need a heat sink and I can attest that these get HOT. You'll also need to make a few things using a few parts from radio crap. The size of the portion that lights up is 1/4" x 1 3/8" with a 120 degree viewing angle, perfect size for tail lights. Even though looking straight at them was painfully bright, three of them casting light into a room (where a shade obstructed a direct view) was about the equivalent to a 100 watts light bulb.
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rollcentre
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Post by rollcentre »

mooseheadm5 wrote:http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=109181

You can start here. Not LED, but better than stock.

There are halogen lights you can install in place of your reverse lights.
I'll plus one to this.

I noticed a huge difference when I went to the high output and added the extra bulb in the tail light housings. It's as bright (if not a tad bit brighter) than any other late model car on the street.
Mike W.
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Post by Mike W. »

I went low tech and just replaced the old (and they do dim some with age) 5W bulbs with new 10W bulbs which was a nice upgrade. Some guys were thinking the sky would fall, the tail light would overheat and melt, but they were thinking of the brake/backup 18 or 21 watt bulbs. I had no issues in 3 years.
e28Sean
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Post by e28Sean »

The LED lamps i ordered should be here the first week of January... For what i spent, they either work well, or they don't. We'll see.
e28Sean
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WOO!

Post by e28Sean »

The USPS man dropped off a pile of goodies for me today, including these 12v led.. ... fixtures? lamps? lights? It doesn't feel right calling 'em "bulbs"...

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Got these off of Amazon. They are chinese, and they were suspiciously cheap, but, so far i am impressed. The bodies are milled out of some pretty decent aluminum, and they are kinda heavy in the hand (i was expecting crap plastic). (and yes, i ordered 2 pair intentionally... You'll see why... eventually.)

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Another pic, next to my Nexus 4, for scale.



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Before any changes. They look bright in this pic, but they are actually pretty dim (cheap camera). Kinda hard to tell if they are even on, some nights, from inside the car.

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Left, LED. Right, incandescent.

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Signaling ET!


Unlike a lot of LED lamps, these shine light straight back, and to the sides, so, the entire housing is illuminated. I'm gonna wait for it to get good and dark, and go have a play, but i am pretty pleased, so far.
MIK911
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Post by MIK911 »

Pretty impressive!
What other bulbs are you going to replace w/ the LED's?

Can you post the link of the seller/item # on ebay?

thanks
Jelmer538i
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Post by Jelmer538i »

I've tried some Chinese ones from Ebay and they suck but this looks very good! What "bulbs" did you use from Amazon?
e28Sean
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Post by e28Sean »

Correction, these came from ebay, not Amazon. I have a few tricks up my sleeve from Amazon, though, which i'll be posting about at some point.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1054998051


I have a 2nd pair sitting on my desk to experiment with, and plan to order more so long as these hold up and don't fail within the next couple of weeks. My plans, for now, are to also use these bulbs in the brake and rear fog positions, with the rear fog positions set up as an extra pair of brake lights.
e28Sean
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Post by e28Sean »

I tossed the 2nd pair of these into the taillights this morning (park / running light positions) before work. They without a doubt make the vehicle more visible while retaining a stock appearance.

I just ordered enough additional units to fill out the rest of the taillights (including doing the double brake lamp mod w/ the rear fog positions). Should be here in about a week.

EDIT: These lights do not trigger a check system warning.
pennybond
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LED Bulbs

Post by pennybond »

Looks great, Sean.

I just order myself a pair! Can't wait to try them.
e28Sean
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Re: LED Bulbs

Post by e28Sean »

pennybond wrote:Looks great, Sean.

I just order myself a pair! Can't wait to try them.
Thanks!
Hope they work out for ya! I'm pretty happy with them. I've got the rear park / running lights and reverse lights done, and ordered enough additional LED bulbs to do the rest of the rear lights.

Oh, and i also LED'd the rear side markers.

Image

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B Dot
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Post by B Dot »

Would any of these 1156 lights work in the reverse lamps? The first 2 closest resemble the ones you purchased off ebay. I would like to do this upgrade as well. Thanks in advance!

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Catego ... ignal/1156
e28Sean
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Post by e28Sean »

B Dot,

I posted a link to these guys above:
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They work fantastically well in the reverse lamp position, and the rear park / running lamp position (i removed the end lens for the park position, for a more dispersed pattern).
pennybond
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Side Marker

Post by pennybond »

Sean, did the side marker leds above come with the bulb base adapter?? Were these ebay specials as well?

Thanks!
e28Sean
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Re: Side Marker

Post by e28Sean »

pennybond wrote:Sean, did the side marker leds above come with the bulb base adapter?? Were these ebay specials as well?

Thanks!
They were from Amazon, and yes, they did come with a selection of bulb adapters.
pennybond
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Post by pennybond »

Thanks, again.
e28Sean
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Re: LED tails? (Update: LED reverse lights installed!)

Post by e28Sean »

I never updated this thread when i did it, so, i'm updating it now. I've used the same LED units in the front and rear turn signals as well. This DID require changing the turn signal flasher to an LED comparable unit. Note: These lamps juuuust fit in the euro front turn signal housings. I do not believe they will in the US front turn signals, but, I have no way of confirming that myself. YMMV.

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cek
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Re: LED tails? (Update: LED reverse lights installed!)

Post by cek »

Based on this thread I decided to give some LED lights another try.

Previously I had purchased these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F23 ... UTF8&psc=1

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For some very strange reason I could only get one of them to work at a time. Both bulbs worked fine if only one was installed, but if both were installed, only one would light. I tried them in the backup lights, blinkers, and tails. Very weird. I gave up $20 poorer.

Then I saw this thread and bought a set of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-S25-1156-P2 ... 19?vxp=mtr

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Here's these new ones installed. In the first pic the one above is on the left and the higher-quality feeling eBay ones is on the right.
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This is what it looks like with both the eBay ones installed:
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I'll update this thread once I try backing up in the dark :-).

FWIW, here's what these bulbs look like in the center tail light spot compared to OEM:
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LED on the left.
Last edited by cek on Feb 07, 2015 4:55 PM, edited 1 time in total.
Gustav129
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Re: LED tails? (Update: LED reverse lights installed!)

Post by Gustav129 »

What color LED "bulbs" are you using? I found in my CRX, if I ran a white "bulb", it washed out the red lenses, so I matched all the colors with respective lenses.

I'll probably go with Superbrightleds.com, as they sponsor a friend's ChumpCar team.
e28Sean
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Re: LED tails? (Update: LED reverse lights installed!)

Post by e28Sean »

All of the one's I'm running are white... I haven't noticed any "Washing out" of color.
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