I converted my stock taillights into LED taillights.

Its not the greatest job ever, but it will keep people guessing

I bought some LED taillights from a truck stop. They didnt fit my truck (International 9400i flat-top Pro sleeper "72) because of some
kind of size difference. Whatever.. I was talking to my buddy about what happened and he "jokingly" suggested installing them in my
z-24, and laughed.

I laughed, then started to think...


I cut the "truck stop" light housings apart with my dremel, and tossed the works, saving the LED matrix, and the wiring. Then I looked at the taillight housing
on the car, and after doing some experimentaing on a broken LH, figured the easiest way to install it was secure it to the inner refelctor. and aligning it
straight back.

I cut a small acess hole, on the top of the (black) taillight housing. Making sure that all I needed was enough of a gap to clear the circut board
and the LED's

After fitting it to the large chrome-plated refector, I Used RTV sealent (silicone) to secure the board to the housing. After which I use the piece I had cut out
to fix the hole, and sealed that with some Black Gascut maker.. (same stuff, different color )

I took the old lightbulbs, and broke them. I trimmed the filiment wires and soldered the leads from the LED matrix to the leads off the bulb. This way no-fuss wiring..

Now my turn indicator is on very rapidly, due to the low resistance of the LED's.

I thought to install a Resistor to trick the flasher unit into thinking that I have the old bulbs, and I think thats the right idea. However, because the Brake lights use the same
circut as the flashers (same light circut) would it be better to install resistors on the taillights themseves, or on the flasher itself? Also, I don't know how much resistance the stock bulbs provide, because filiments are a resistor surrounded by inert gas, as the tempreture of the filiment rises, so does the ristance.. Reading it with a meter, might give a miss-reading.. because its measuring the filiment cold..

so? what do I do?

you need the grote led flasher. linky

this solves all the problems, as it does not rely on resistance to trip the flasher.



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What part number bulb would be replacement LED for 03 cavalier...

FOR EXAMPLE...GE reg bulb is say 72LS02

would the LED bulb (not GE, obviousley) be the same numnber??

Thrice . wrote:i think you should go back and try to actually order some cam valves. see if he has any in stock. then ask him to give you an actual price and show you the website or anything legit about where he orders from...for all you know he is this dumb, and orders things that don't exist....he's probably got 10 of those ebay transistors that gave him eleventy hundred pony power....what a douche.

no. it would be a 3157, 3357, or 3457 (they all interchange)

I do not recommend using an LED bulb in a stock housing, however:



LED bulb on the left, standard bulb on the right


Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Saturday, May 26, 2007 9:54 PM

These pictures are from "after the fact" I wanted to photo-document some of the install so that I could share it with J-Body.

This is what I started with, my "truck-stop" LED taillights. They are listed as "2.75 LED Turn/Stop TRK" which I assume stands for
TRUCK. The retail price probably varies, these were 14.95 CDN each.



I cut out the lense, staying about a 1/4 inch away from the red lense part and unscrewed the LED matrix. which stood mounted atop those 4 screw posts.

Then I cut away the back part there, initally because I wanted to use the pigtails (also found at a truckstop) to intigrate it into my stock harness.
Later I discovered that I could use the existing light bulb, as my intigration point, and ended up lobbing the wires, and soldering them
to the cut off light bulb filiment leads instead.



With my LED matrix and whatnot all figured out, I then turned to the scrap LH taillight I had kicking around.

After studying it closely I realized that there was only one way I could get the LED matrix inside the housing "WITHOUT":
-Cutting the stock lense off
-Screwing up how the housing mounts to the car
-Generally MESSING everything up (also why I chose the busted light to practice on too)

This is where I finally cut into the housing.



Theres a flat spot on the top of the taillight assy, which makes for easy cutting and in no time at all, I had the LED Matrix inside
and was busy trying to figure out the best way to align it so that the LED's projected straight back into traffic (preferably I would think for
safety purposes )

After getting everything sorted out, I went to work on the "good" taillights.

4 hours and a couple of tube-steaks later.. voila..



The LED matrix actually hides very well, due to the circut board in which theyre soldered to.. its a silvery white..
This photo is with the running lights on. It was taken this morining (allong with all the photos) broad daylight.

The photo below is a shot of the same taillight, only from a more conventional position.



..And this is when the brake or signal is applied.



I sealed the whole in the top of the taillight using "black" RTV sealent, and the leftover piece of plastic I had, when I cut the
hole initially.. you can see a bit of it in the photo below.




If you want more pictures, let me know, and If theres enough response, I will use the old taillight housing, and
do a step by step process.

I think all in all, It went together really easy. Using the stock red diffuser gives it an "ANTI" altezza look, but updated functionality.

I also wanted to get that "custom but stock" look. Its been 2 days, and allready I had someone follow me into a gas station to ask me
where I got my taillights.

that makes me feel good.



now about that trick flasher..

No.. I would rather not go that route. I like that fact that when a flasher goes in my car, I can go down to the local parts-source and pick up an OEM
flasher for 10.00 rather than buying a 50.00 fancy flasher. I argue that there has to be some way to fool the stock flasher into thinking that
the taillights have the same resistance it had before.

Not when a pack of resistors is $1.50 and its nothing to solder a connection.

In the words of Ernest P. Warrell...
"...know what I mean, Vern?..."

the flashers for our cars are $30 from advance and autozone anyway. looked it up today, actually.



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do you care that your being ripped off?

i got my flasher w/ lifetime warranty. it goes bd, i still have my oem unit, i send the led unit back, and get a brand new one.as for resistors, im not sure the exact resistane you need, BUT, on superbrightleds website they do sell load blocks. be forewarned however, the reason WHY i went with the grote flasher, is because these get VERY hot.



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Rich Grayo Jr. wrote:i got my flasher w/ lifetime warranty. it goes bd, i still have my oem unit, i send the led unit back, and get a brand new one.as for resistors, im not sure the exact resistane you need, BUT, on superbrightleds website they do sell load blocks. be forewarned however, the reason WHY i went with the grote flasher, is because these get VERY hot.

agreed. however since I have my front bumper off currently, I repositioned mine to where they are away from any flammable/meltable source

BTW, nice work Coop.

Rich Grayo Jr. wrote:i got my flasher w/ lifetime warranty. it goes bd, i still have my oem unit, i send the led unit back, and get a brand new one.as for resistors, im not sure the exact resistane you need, BUT, on superbrightleds website they do sell load blocks. be forewarned however, the reason WHY i went with the grote flasher, is because these get VERY hot.

I hashed out the specs on how much resistnace is needed for each bulb.

1.787 Amps is the exact load on each bulb, when energized with 12V DC current. I = V over R.

6ohm 50W resistor is suggested through superbriteleds, athough the only negitive byproduct is HEAT... lots and lots of heat.

I tried a 10ohm 10W resistor and that got so hot it liquified the solder dab I had on the lead to give me an estimated tempreture. yeah 200deg F+


So my apologies for my ignroance there Rich. It was un-neccessary to contest so much and I think I will buy a "Grote Flasher" instead.

Oh, one more thing, I tried to solder the taillight leads to the filiments of the broken bulb.. and well... silver solder doesnt stick very well to Tungsten..


...place palm in front of forehead, hit forehead with palm of hand. Repeat as neccessary.