LED Bulb Conversion

[Army_MP_From_MO]

Originally Posted by Cadi Cat

I got these from ebay. They really do illimunate the entire housing. It really looks awesome. You can also see the top layer leds in a circle but that even looks sweet. I only bought one to try it out because I was skeptical but I'm definatly buying one for the other side. I also have them in the reverse lights. Those are also really bright. I tried to take a piture but it's nothing but blur. Weird thing is though the brakelight led only works when the bulb it NOT anchored. So I gotta figure out how to keep it from vibrating out.


ARMY this may be your case. Try just setting the bulb in the socket not anchoring it in and see if it works. I just realized this out myself tonight by playing with it.

He's right they do look sweet!

I'm going to give that a try. It's a single connector so that sould be the correct bulb.

I just rewired it back to the original configuration, the original bulb lights up now. It sounded a little off the wall, but I gave it a try. (Mark that on off the list, doesn't work) I wonder if they changed the flasher in the 2000 from the one in 1999. I got mine off of Ebay too. The 57 LED was the largest I could find that I thought would fit. I eyed a spiderlite but I don't think it would fit the brake light housing.

[Army_MP_From_MO]

Originally Posted by Cadi Cat

Weird thing is though the brakelight led only works when the bulb it NOT anchored. So I gotta figure out how to keep it from vibrating out.

Rubber cement around the top of the socket?

[Cadi Cat]

Originally Posted by MichBiz

Cadi Cat, what color did you buy? Some sites I see recommend the Red bulb and some recommend White. With Red I feel as if it might not be bright with the Red Tail Light lense but with White I think it might turn the color purple due to the bluish tint of the while LED. I might be crazy... HAHA!

I thought I read somewhere that they recommend which ever color your lens is. I bought red for the brakelights. They are just as bright as the regular bulbs but the color is much more vibrant. It really brings out that candy red color! For my reverse lights I bought the super high powered leds because they are smaller and the regular white led bulb was too large to fit in the housing. They are definatly high powered! They are brighter than the factory. Nice when I'm backing in the dark.

[Cadi Cat]

Well here are some photos. It's the best I can come up with. But at least you can see that they really light up the entire housing.

Brakelight:



Running light:


The running light on the trunk lid is still a filiment bulb. I can't find an led to fit. But that doesn't really matter since it's just a running light. You can tell that there is less glare with the led.

Reverse Light:



How do I fix this? It's stays on while the car is on.



Hope this helps. This is the type of thing I enjoy doing so any questions I'm here to help. I put leds in the side markers too:

[Army_MP_From_MO]

which brand side markers did you pick up?

[kmcatera00]

Thanks for the pictures! They look like they match the high mount stop bar nicely. I am all bout making it look as close to a factory job as possible. I had thought about looking into having some LED pannels made for the brake/tail lights (like the turn signals) - but have no idea where to look, how much $$, who to go to, or if it is even possible.

[Cadi Cat]

Originally Posted by Army_MP_From_MO

which brand side markers did you pick up?

I forget but they have them at autozone. That's where I picked them up at. They have Red and Amber

[Cadi Cat]

Originally Posted by kmcatera00

Thanks for the pictures! They look like they match the high mount stop bar nicely. I am all bout making it look as close to a factory job as possible. I had thought about looking into having some LED pannels made for the brake/tail lights (like the turn signals) - but have no idea where to look, how much $$, who to go to, or if it is even possible.

Yeah, I've been looking for those panels too. I've come up with nothing.

[eastsidercaddy]

I LOVE the LED conversion, especially since I changed the look of my rear tail lights a bit. I love hi-tech stuff that's cheap especially the LED. I got my LED Bulbs off of a chineses manufacturer that sells them at a decent price for ultra white 30 some odd LED bubls. I got 2 for around 32 dollars on eBay. Here's a pic of them just on RUNNING LIGHTS. It looks like brake lights.



also, depending on the number of LED's your red housing may look a little pinkinsh like mine since the LED's are around 1.5 times brighter on running mode. AND INSANELY bright when braking around 2 times brighter than filament. NEVER get the RED LED's they sell at autozone or advance auto. These are actually darker if you put them in your RED brake housing. RED+RED = DARK RED. ALWAYS get the ultra brite WHITE LEDS

[elvin315]

Personally, I'll stay with incandescents. Those LEDs look too bright. I know I hate following a car that has a cracked tail light lens or the brake light switch shorted. Why do I want to antagonize the drivers behind me or attract unnecessary attention from the police?

Elvin

[lakesidepark]

well...you asked...the answer? cause police and other drivers are antagonized when a light doesn't work, and the incandescents fail on a regular basis. The LED will probably last the life of the car. And you don't HAVE to get the ultrabrights, you can get those that are just a bit brighter than incandescents. They also last the life of the car. If you do match the housing color, then a cracked lens wouldn't be an issue either.

My $0.02.

(maybe I should get back to work....)

[Cadi Cat]

Originally Posted by kmcatera00

Thanks for the pictures! They look like they match the high mount stop bar nicely. I am all bout making it look as close to a factory job as possible. I had thought about looking into having some LED pannels made for the brake/tail lights (like the turn signals) - but have no idea where to look, how much $$, who to go to, or if it is even possible.

Here, I found something you might be interested in. But you would have to tear apart the housing and glue them in or something. Nothing I want to do but the cord simply plugs into the factory socket so at least you won't have to rewire anything.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1-RED...6473QQtcZphoto

[lakesidepark]

Ok, I decided to try some LED bulbs for my brake / parking lights and my turn signals this weekend. On 97 Catera, it has this one plastic bulb mount for both bulbs in each lens. There is total of 4 wires running to the bulb mount: park, brake, turn, ground. This is what I found:
Brake / Park are the correct polarity in the socket. Plug and play (I think). More later on that.
Turn is OPPOSITE polarity in the socket. The common of the brake / park bulb (the shell) goes to the single pole of the turn bulb.
Since this is a solid piece of metal, the only way I see to properly reverse polarity is to cut the metal and solder the correct connections (simply swapping wires cannot work as the shell of one bulb and the center post of another bulb are using the same piece of metal??)

My third brake LED is not working. However I did not notice if it was working before I started. I did swap back to the original bulbs to eliminate the possibility that the LED bulb was causing a problem.

I have more investigation to do. SInce I didn't see anyone mention this, then...that is what i see, and if anyone else noted this problem with the socket polarity - can you enlighten me on how you corrected it? (97 thru 99 I assume, I didn't note any 2000 and newer having any issue).

[Army_MP_From_MO]

I got the same problems when I took advice to rewire the socket. That won't work. I've got a pair of resistors on the way that I've been informed will fix the problem. I'll keep ya updated. Wish me luck!

[Cadi Cat]

In case anyone plans on putting leds in the instrument panel. Don't waste your time or money. they don't work. I'm guessing because of the dimmer switch. I couldn't get them to light.