I finally got pulled (and cited) for my "pink" brake lights which is a red glass bulb inside my clear housing. The detective said it was only an issue of the fact that they light up "clear" and will cause an accident because they dont draw the attention of Red. Ive been through the other post debating on whats leagal for clear tails and dont really care about the details of legality, myself and the local coppers will be happy with Red LED bulbs. When i bought the tails I also got some 18light LEDs but they didnt fit in the housing, and it seems i needde the 6ohm loaders as well.

Can anyone suggest a seller, or a product that they are using that provides a nice bright red LED light that has no fitment issues? Where do i get the 6ohm loaders as well?

Thanks

 

polarg

 

http://www.v-leds.com/ this site is amazing! they have several applications for you

 

autolumination. pwned

I've gotten pulled for my clear rears as well. Turn on your running lights when you get some red led's, at least the lights will be red when you ride with those clear tails.

 

polarg... a brand name sold by many. v-leds seem expensive and i cant tell if they are going to fit. Am checking out autolumination. Tippy, which bulbs did you get from them? Did you also buy 6ohm loaders to prevent the dashlight from coming on?

 

That's gay, if you look at the Mercury Mountaineer, there rear tails are clear and when you brake the taillights look pinkish as well... stupid they pulled you over that



But if you want to get leds.. I get mine from v-leds.com

 

lack of rear red reflector on the maxima clear tails. the mountaineer has them, same with the RX from lexus.

 

ahh but there reflectors on the bottom bumper. But if you got pulled over for your "pinkish" brake lights than that is just a bunch of bull donkey.

 

The pink lights was the definitive problem that the detective complained about, thats all i care about, as discussed here on the forum the regulations are unclear and even less so widespread knowledge. Ive had these lights for about two years, been pulled over by other cops and theyve never said anything so i think if i get these RED LEDs, ill be fine, im certainly not going back to stock tails or buying red reflective tape.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, once again if anyone has a specific product that they can suggest, i would appreciate it.

 

www.superbrightleds.com

 

go to autozone and get the cheap rubber bulb condoms. thats what i did. if you use LEDs youll lose your cruise control. sounds weird i know, but it happens

 

Maybe i can try the red bulbs i have with red condoms on it? I had condoms on there for a bit but forgot why i traded in for the red glass bulbs, i think the fitment was loose. I think they only sell the condoms in magnum size...

Anyone else agree with the cruise control problem? I have never heard that mentioned before, im a big advocate of cruise control and am not willing to give that up. I dont want to spend $40 on bulbs that: 1 might not even fit in the lights, and 2 ruin cruise control

 

+1 on the superbrightleds.com. I have the clear tails. I bought the red 15 led bulb and two of the six ohm loaders. My cruise works fine and have red tail lights.

The reason why the cruise doesn't work with the leds is because they run off of the brake light circuit. when the leds are put in the leds do not draw enough power for the cruise control to work. just have to get the loaders and will be just fine. cruise control is my friend.

 

WHOA!

www.superbrightleds.com is definately the way to go, their prices are less than half of what other people charge, their website is easy and they have it all with cheap shipping. Thanks for the help everyone, i just made my purchase... got two tail bulbs, two 6ohm loaders and a few extra white led accent lights for my side markers/liscence plate for $35 shipped

WHOA!

 

This might be a noob question, but how would you connect the two six ohm loaders to the led bulb?

 

LED's draw less current, therefore have a lower resistance (ohms) on the circuit.

Using LED's will "unbalance" the cirucuit due to voltage/resistance irregularities, and cause a host of malodies - the least of which, will be skewed timing for the flashing rate of the blinkers.

Wiring resisters in-line with the LED's balances the ohm loading, and equalizes the flashing rate.

gr

 

When you buy the resistors from superbrightleds.com, it comes with a wiring schematic to tell you how to put them in line properly

This is a pic that i previously downloaded from somewhere else on the forum that also helped me to wire. Ignore the taps/clips that are X'd out. Also there are no + or - end of the resistors.



PS my superbright leds light up really well and I have not had any issues with them or the cops since installing.

 

Thats got to be the dumbest thing i ever heard how is that some one explain

 

cool thanks ghostrider17 and scottygill!
Once the led bulbs and resistors come in and i have any further questions, ill be sure to go back here

 

Actually, another question.

Would it be necessary to order the resistors if you were to purchase the yellow 15 LED bulbs as well?

From what I understand, the only reason why we need the resistors for the red LED bulbs is so that we can keep our cruise control since they affect each other. If it was up to me, I would only purchase the red LED bulbs along with the resistors without the yellow bulbs, but since I'm from Canada, there is some $25 minimum for shipping out of US. Boooo

 

It's amazing how someone can be wrong in details (the opposite is true) while right in general .

LEDs consume much less current than normal bulb so these loaders are used to keep the rest of the car convinced there's an old bulb in place. They're connected directly to the old bulb contacts parallel to the LED . These loaders get hot if the light is ON for a prolonged time.

 

Cruise Control (ASCD) is not really ran off brake light circuit but it is connected to it with one of its inputs. It seems normal bulbs successfully ground that input while LEDs cannot because they don't consume any current when turned off therefore cannot ground anything leaving the input 'floating'. From the point of view of ASCD it looks like the Stop Lamp is ON so it refuses to turn on.

My point standard ohm loader is overkill for this particular application - much higher resistor should do the trick as well, say 1 kOhm, 1/4W. It might get warm but it is much smaller part and it should successfully convince ASCD that Stop Lamp is OFF.

 

Get resistors for the ambers too or your blinkers will be blinking fast, falsely indicating that the bulb is about to burn out. Anyways it will look incongruent having incandescent turn signals that "charge up/pulse" while having LED brake lights that immediately emit their full light. This is a poor description but i cant think of a smarter/electrical statement.... anyone???

Get some 194 wedges for your interior doors if you cant make the minimum purchase criteria

 

So are you saying that having the regular yellow bulb in combination with the red LED bulb would look wierd on the car?

Is that that the only disadvantage of having the combo of both or will it not work in terms of 'electrically hooking it up'?

 

You've done great, I also think that using loaders for turn signals is unavoidable: blinking unit has sensor of the current flowing through the bulb so if the current is low (because it's LED now) it will make it think the bulb is out and change blinking rate.

I don't think that dieing bulb decreases its current to the level that triggers blinking rate change. I think, it's simpler - when the bulb is out the current becomes 0 and this is what blinking unit detects. Unfortunately I can't estimate the minimum current which has to flow in order to be considered 'normal' by the blinking unit. Full equivalent will certainly work but it will also be quite hot which makes it inconvenient to mount. The total power to be dissipated is around 13W, quite hot IMO, especially if someone uses them as hazard lights waiting for tow.

 

Yes I think that is the only disadvantage is appearance, the blinkers are independent from the brakes. Im guessing you have clear tails now as well? I still suggest that you commit to the investment now considering you will probably want to down the line and your checkout cart will be even harder to fill later.


ahh i see says the electrically challenged man. I wish i knew more about circuits, leds, wiring diagrams, polarity and the like. The knowledge of some people on the org (both mechanical and electrical) has always blown my mind

 

Okay so I'll probably end up buying both the red and yellow LED bulbs along with the resistors.

So just before I check out, just to make sure...I'm buying the 7440 and 7443 15 led bulbs (2 red and 2 amber) and 4 of the RL 650 tail light load resistors right?

Also, are the led lights any good in the daytime?

And I've been going through this 'clear tail debate' for the past two days and wanted to know if anybody on the ORG has actually put two red reflective tapes on their bumper or anywhere else on the rear of their car? If someone has, do you mind posting the picture? For the safety of other drivers, I wnna able to reflect red at the back of my car.

P.S. Sorry for all the questions...and thanks!

 

Some good info in here I just bought some used clears and yea the pink light looks pretty gay. Has anyone done this conversion with some nice night shots and a discription of which bulbs you went with would be awesome. Thanks for the help.

02Blackout

 

Yup thats all you need to buy, the lights arent superbright in the daytime but its not a safety issue and are bright enough to be recognized by drivers and police alike. I dont think anyone who has or would put clear tails in would be willing to ruin the clean look with reflective tape. IF a cop wants to pull you over he will find a better reason to do so or would pull you anyways for something else. The red reflection is a lame safety requirement, our liscence plates reflect a lot and so do our sidemarkers. If you feel so inclined i believe you would be the first.


I ought to get some pics, dont know why i havnt already but the red is INTENSE at night and the color is as noticeably different to all other cars as HID headlights are to incandescent yellow ones. I will work on pic soon

 

Alright, so I just made my purchase. Thanks for all the help scott.

Haha, I just if worse comes to worse and a cop pulls me over, I'll end up putting the tape either on the bumper or tail light. But a cop has driven right behind me at least twice since I've gotten the clear altezzas with black housings and wasn't pulled over, so I guess it wasn't 'illegal' or they just didn't care

 

Hello I'm back!
So I've installed the LEDs and the resistors and it looks great, BUT one problem my stop/tail light warning light in my dash is on now. Just looking it over, wouldn't I have to add another splice connector to the green/white wire in both tails? Since I have the resistor only going to the green/yellow wire and nothing on the green/white wire. Or am I doing it all wrong and the green/white wire should be in?

 

To try and answer my own question, I tried some trial-and-error and switched over the splice connector for my stop light from the green/yellow wire to the green/white wire and IT DID get rid of my stop/tail warning light, BUT not in the way I wanted it to.

At first, my warning light only went on whenever my headlights were turned on usually when it gets dark...other than that, the warning light never turned on whenever I pressed the brakes in the day time (i.e. this is when my connector was on the green/yellow wire). Now that I switched the connector to the green/white wire, my light isn't on anymore whenever I turn on the headlights, but it pops up everytime I depress the brakes?! Haha, I'm starting to think I need three resistors (one for the green/yellow, one for the green/white and one for the turn signal). Can anyone confirm this?

Below are pictures to show my setup as of now. Pardon the quality and 'sucki-ness' of the pictures, its hard to get a clear shot while my tail light housings are on the car already, but having a picture is better than not having a picture at all right?



So this is my setup...I know the electrical tape is ghetto but whatever it does the job and hasn't fallen off yet!



This is my connection for the red bulb



AND finally, this is my connection for my turn signal

 

You need two resistors for the brake lights.... if you put LEDS in your turn signal as well... then you need a resistor for it as well I just went out and checked my setup and can confirm that you need 3 resistors per side if you are running LED Stops and turns

When you get everything figured out, get yourself some self tapping screws and screw those resistors to the inside of the trunk below the light