LED Taillights....?

[IronMonkeyL255]

Hmmm.....

I was thinking. Could someone put together a set of LED bulbs for a vehicle that doesn't already have LED tails?

I was looking at my taillights and noticed just how open they are when you remove the back cover. Someone could EASILY put a board with a ton of LEDs there for lighting.

You could cannibalize a bulb for a base to plug into the stock location and use all the proper resistors and whatnot to step the voltage down to the proper level.

Sound feasible?

I haven't checked on price yet, but enough LEDs would probably be too expensive, though.

[dscoobydoo]

I saw one of the guys on the Maxima forum do this. I think he ran a total of around 45 LEDs. I would think that it would look cool, but be cost prohibitive.

But if you can keep the cost down, yes it looks good. If you want, I can link you to the pics of his final result.

[91White-T]

I was thinkin about this too a while back, but I can't find a cheap source for LEDs.

[petridish38]

What about a Cadillac in the JY with LED tails? Never seen one internally, so im not sure how easy it would be to get all those LEDs out... You also might even be able to use some of the wiring inside to make it work on the Legacy

Andrew

[Flip_x]

i dont think cadillac escalade have LED tail lights. i saw one with a mesed up rear and there was a bulb in it. its the way the refector is made i guess because i wanted to do that some how to but it would be hard to find the right reflector.

[evolutionmovement]

The CHMSL on some of the Cadillacs is LED. I'm pretty sure the other lights are flourescent.

Steve

[greg donovan]

the sedan devilles have LEDs

[petridish38]

2000 and up model year DeVilles have LEDs in the tails. Not sure if 5 years is enough time for them to start popping up in junkyards though.

Andrew

[dscoobydoo]

check this put: http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/showth ... t=led+tail

[IronMonkeyL255]

Hmm......

I may have to look into this some more.....

[magicmike]

I am thinking that the cadilac tails use one large super bright red LED and hundreds of fiber optic threads that are molded ino the design and are routed back to the one LED. Thats the way I would do it anyway. I have noticed the neon third brake lights in the escalade though. pretty cool!

[vrg3]

Could someone put together a set of LED bulbs for a vehicle that doesn't already have LED tails?

NO!

You cannot use LEDs in place of incandescent bulbs. They're completely different light sources. An incadescent bulb filament's basically a little cylinder that shines equally in all directions of a sphere. An LED shines in a narrow set of angles in only one direction.

This is not a little technicality. Signal lights have optics that are much more complex than they initially look. There's a reflector designed around the filament geometry of the bulb, which kind of aim the light at the lens, and there are flutes in the lens that then spread the light out in a pattern that allows it to be seen from all angles that it would need to be visible from.

There are companies that sell little hackjob "retrofits" which are basically LEDs epoxied into incandescent bulb bases. If you put one of these in a taillight or turn signal, you'll find that it shines straight out the lens. Most of the light gets bent off to random angles, and almost none of it actually comes out at the sides.

Next time you see one of these Caddies, look closely at the taillights. There are gazillions of LEDs, and some really complicated optics built into those lenses. There are many more LEDs than you could fit into the space of an incandescent bulb, and the optics are completely different from our taillight optics. These are absolutely necessary.

So, to get LED taillights, you need LED taillights. Not LEDs. Weld a Cadillac or Mercedes rear end onto your Legacy, or get LED-based universal heavy-truck taillights. You can't put LEDs in taillights that use light bulbs.