LED JDM Rear Lights.

[supradupra.com]

More daft LED adventures this weekend!

Decided to have a first attempt at LEDing the JDM light units startng with the winkers and reverse lits. The brake and tail are also LEDs but use high power replacement bulbs at present.

Had to make up a whole bunch of LED strips, 6 yellow and 6 white - very boring to do and didn't help my hangover (blatantly still drunk) this morning!



A few bits of the insides of the lights got pulled out, as luck has it you can do this from the access hole in the back which is handy!

Once the prisms are out the LED strips fit perfectly into the frame inside.

Wiring wise I bought a tail out from the strips and popped some old bulbs allowing me to solder the bases onto the wires and simply plug them into the stock bulb holders making the mod reversable.



Fitted to car un lit - can't really see them which is the idea!



And lit.... Will take a night time shot later probably, this is bright sunlight to check the daytime visability which is better than the stock lamps!



The No plate lamps have also been LED'd and I'm soon going to attack Toyotas shoddy attempt at a spoiler brake light as I have seen brighter candles!

Thats it for this week.

[martin p]

very nice mate, got a link for you to have a look at, a guy who done a similar job in the states,

http://www.supramania.com/forums/sho...t=50058&page=2

hope you are doing a write up when your head clears a bit??

[supra gaz]

your work never ceases to amaze me you really are the king of all things electrical nice job

[supradupra.com]

OOOH I like the guy's in the US - funky.

My main aim here was to do something that didn't mean stripping down the lights and could be done from the existing opening. Didn't even remove the lights from the car to fit them, just got it all sorted using a spare cluster first which was handy!

First attempt anyways, shall probably be a revamp in near future!

[timmysturbo]

well tbh i think stuey has made a nightmare job more easier the bloke had all sorts of grief to get the led's working right with pwm power and so on. stu if this is more of a plug and play you should let us know and i think we all will have them lol

[martin p]

Originally Posted by supradupra.com

OOOH I like the guy's in the US - funky.

My main aim here was to do something that didn't mean stripping down the lights and could be done from the existing opening. Didn't even remove the lights from the car to fit them, just got it all sorted using a spare cluster first which was handy!

First attempt anyways, shall probably be a revamp in near future!

I like yours mate, how much to knock up a set?? with one RED reverse set up for my fog light. the other guys stop and tails are cool but your turns and reverse are better!

[adi]

Originally Posted by supradupra.com

The No plate lamps have also been LED'd and I'm soon going to attack Toyotas shoddy attempt at a spoiler brake light as I have seen brighter candles!

i refurbed the LED's in the white one about three years back.. not easy considering i was once a master solderer , its amazing how much of a mess you can make of things without a fully equipped workbench ! trying to solder stuff with a £10 iron whilst the thing is rolling around on top of the kitchen worktop isnt the best idea.

Anyway.. i hacked open the unit with a dremel, replaced all the led's as straight as i could, bunged in new resistors and sealed back up with closed cell non corrosive silicon. The result was okay but not brilliant... not worth the effort really, but considering a new one is about £120 it wasnt too bad.

[supradupra.com]

I have done the same to the one on the black car too - cut it open carefully to remove the LED strip - of corse it's worth the effort, a new one will only go dim in another 3 years!

I fitted the one from the white car for a bit sadly tho, the LEDs have literally just burnt out again - uurgh so I now have 2 to refurb.

Most anoying thing is the factory LED legs are all bent over on the solder side of the PCB - makes removing them real tedious! - Easiest thing is to cut the LEDs off then remove each cut leg.

The reason these keep going is because too many LEDs have been put in paralell with eachother, this means the current flow through them is excessive, I'll be looking into sorting those out somehow, possibly binning the stock circuit and replacing with a standard strip as these are now on the market and widely used.

[Karma Supra]

I have actually thought this would look cool for ages!!!!!

Good work!

[supradupra.com]

Had another little tinker today seeming as it was sunny!

Cut the LED spoiler light open, this is easy enough with a vice and sharp knife.



Had a spare LED brake light kicking about which just happened to have the correct sized strip to fit inot the stock unit with the smallest of mods! (stock top, replacement bottom)



I glued that all back together with some clear waterproof sealant, not silicone some other stuff with no nasties in it! It's now blindingly bright and fights back against the new Range rover lights!!

Next was the revisit of the LED rears, time for the final tweekings!

Added some red markers to the corner sections, these come on dim with the sides and get brighter with the brake lights, these are photographed on dim here.



Closer image all lit:



With side markers now fitted & lit as brake lights -think you can see the difference in the spoiler unit now



All lit:



Close up all off just to show the finish



And all of this fits inside without the need to even remove the units from the car, grand, turned out better than I had thought.

Next!

[phoenix2008]

That is brill! Such subtle differences really make a world of difference & bring the ageing 'supe' that lil more upto date.........

[Penfold]

We saw these yesterday, and they look brilliant. The red LEDs on the outside edge of the lights really set things off. Nice job Stuey, and thanks for the coffee!

[supradupra.com]

No problems guys, was great to see you ... finally, yet another couple of members who can confirm I do actually exist

Hope that PS pump sorts things out & thank you for the piccy,

Much as I'd rather be playing car in the sun again I guess I should go to work today, noooooo! More LEDs just this time in someones garden & I get paid for it

It was the red lights that did it for me too, remember I said I'm never happy with anything I do well, these come close to making me happy .... almost!

[supradupra.com]

For information THIS is the exact LED brake light I stole the strip out of.

You need to take the LED PCB out of it, remove 2 of the end LEDs from it and put in a different resistor accordingly.

File the ends of it down to sit in the stock houseing and connect the factory wires - job done!

[supramad77]

Stuey once again you da man. You make the most difficult jobs look so easy.