Replacing tail lights with LED's
 

I would really like the crisper brighter look of LED's to my cars tal lights and blinkers,,, and someone tell me if i need any special equipment, or is it just getting LED bulbs to fit into the OEM socket?

If you put in LEDs most likely your bulb out indicator light will come on. The system knows how much of a current draw there is supposed to be. Since LEDs draw less current, the system willl think there is a bulb buned out and trigger the lamp.

I have not looked into it myself but I believe that you could install a resister somewhere to bring current back to the correct draw. Just be careful of how hot the resister gets and where it is located. If not, you could always pull the idiot light out, but that is a shortcut.

Interesting,,,,, i would like to hear from someone who could tell me more about this... i would really like to put the LED's in because the crisp bright look they have... im sure there is tons of things that go into it, just curious if someone knows more about this..

I just read that for proper functioning of LED lights you need to install a load equalizer. Pictured below.... this will avoid the BULB OUT light from coming on and allow proper operation of the blinkers and such.
http://www.formymercedes.com/images/650.jpg

Yep........just like Ali said......a resistor. ;)

that is true, you will need that...

but if your talking about the round plug in type LED light, i dont think its the look you want...maybe it is...

what you get is just that quarter sized light shining straight out the back...it does not look like a tail lamp designed and built with LED "technology" like a new car...

I had them, took a look and then took them out.

what you would need to do is go to superbrightleds.com order a bunch(with flat end, not round), create a square panel with a ton of LEDs on it and fit it to the taillamp section....wire it correctly and such...thats what i would do anyway...


Now the following pertains to what i know/heard about GM wiring...i had a few buddies install those LED "autozone" lights into their different cars and they (the lights, not my friends) messed with the ABS system...i am not sure because the system was not getting correct draw or reading from the brake system with those lights in there...THEY DID NOT USE A RESISTOR - JUST PLUGGED IN.

Jake

LEDtronics site

Not the chepest but they seem to be engineered to perform better than incandescents.

Actually, the bulb out indicator reacts to an imbalance of current to any pair of monitored lights. Since the LED's would be drawing the same amount of current, the reed switch would not close and the light would not be lighted. A resistor would not be needed.

I hope this helps.

Atomic, that LEDtronics site looks best,, they have LED's that not only point backards but also are faced sideways to compensate for the all around glow of a incandesent bulb. And if it is what i think it is, they will be much brighter than an incandesent. Not only that but if you were to get red LED's for your tail lights and amber lights for your turn signals, i would imagine it would give a much better glow and color richness, and in turn update the outside of the car.