well, here it is. i'm on my way to full LED tails except the reverse lights and i got the signal in but not wired up yet. i'd say it's about 25% complete since i only have the one side done so far. pics on the car won't be taken for atleast 2 weeks

 

original! reminds me of the new caddy's!

 

thats where i got the idea from. that and the new S-Class are the same way

 

How did you do that? That looks pretty cool

 

When you're done, let us know how you've done it. I am really interested now...

 

...me too!!

 

i have a plastic sheet with rows of LEDs in it wired in series. i took out my tail light and cut out the whole top section of it. then i removed the red reflector (which is actually white). slid the sheet in and trimmed it to fit perfectly and covered it back up temporarily with electrical tape. i didn't wire them up yet cause i need to get some fuses ready. thats about it so far.

 

damn those are gonna be sweet! bright too...

 

here's a pic of the sheet

 

How much was it

 

free so far . the costs are gonn start when i get an extra set of tails for maybe $35 shipped and start on the brake light. i gotta get some relays, fuses, resistors and prolly a multi-meter to start.


[Modified by zidek_accord, 9:55 AM 7/8/2002]

 

Craziness!!!!!
You gotta take some pics at night when your done.

 

today i tried to tap them into the signals (with the bulb in and out) but either they didn't work or i just got hyper blinkers . i think i'm gonna have to get some relays and figure out what to do. i don't know what the power rating of the stock bulb is but i know that the LEDs need 12V to work. any suggestions?

 

Are you using 12v LEDs? Most LEDs that I've used are 2 --> 3.5 volts and you need a resistor to compensate, the stock wires will provide 12v power, unsure of amperage tho... Are all the LEDs in that tail light wired in series to each other? Depending on the rating of the LEDs you might have too much resistance in the circuit for them to light up. my $.02

 

yeah. and they are in series too. i thought maybe i can do maybe 5 at a time in parallel and see what happens. also it was suggested that i splice the power wire in 2 to connect the beggining and end and do somethin with the ground. thanks for the input though

 

whoa! don't connect power to both ends of the LED, it will fry... have you tried connecting just ONE LED to the 12v power and ground lead to make sure the power source and ground are good? Do you have the polarity right on the LEDs? (The longer lead on the LED is the + side, the shorter one is ground, if it's backwards you won't get any light!) Hope this helps... B

 

haha... I was thinking of doing that too..

here's the electrical info..

LEDs do not have impedances... they only have a voltage drop. Depending on the LED, the drop could be 0.7V to 1.2V...

You NEEED to have resistors in series with the LEDs. All LEDs have current limits... so basically what you do is this, figure out how many LEDs to run in series, make sure the voltage drop across all of them is not more than the srouce voltage... then using a resistor, find out how much you need to ensure the current does exceed the LEDs current limit, otherwise u'll fry the LEDs...

then if you need more, then connect up another series in parallel...

Are you using white LEDs or red ones ? I hope you're using the really bright ones, otherwise u won't be able to see anything...

 

thanks for the info. i'm using red ones. i'll try this out 2maro morning and get back then. thanks

 

alright. i just tested one LED and i know the polaity of it and it works. now the mian problem is figuring out which wires run power and which is the ground. once i get those wires i think things will start to roll. i thought the green w/ yellow wire was the power and the black is the ground but when i tap those wires and try to signal, it doesn't work. do you know which wires do what?

 

hmm... not sure which wire is +/-, if you have a multimeter hook it up and it will tell you, if not, do you still have the stock bulb harness on there? The wire that goes to the center of the harness will be the + and the one that goes to the outside of the bulb will be -... I'm at work so I don't have my shop manual to check for you... worst case you could try it both ways, just don't leave it hooked up too long!

 

thats what i did and it didn't work (even testing 1 LED) either way. i'll prolly pick one up this week though.

 

Looks cool.

 

WOW tail lights

 

Very cool! Anyone think of doing the line tail lights from the new BMW 5 series?

 

thats pretty much was it's going to be. anyhow... i'm looking at thw schematic for thw turn signals thats in the Haynes manual and there isn't a +/- wire, just a power and ground. in that case should i assume that the ground is -? and if thats true how would resistors come into play and when i do get a multimeter, how would i figure out which ones to get? thanks alot for all the help you guys have given me