LED Bulb Conversion

[Army_MP_From_MO]

How do I check the polarity? My problem is that with the wires hooked up like they would from the factory they wouldn't light up at all. When I rewired it at the socket they began to flash, so did both brake lights, very faint and the third brake light began to flash opposite of those. Are you saying if I replace the flasher relay it will fix all of this and I can rewire back to original configuration?

[Cadi Cat]

First of all you don't want to rewire anything! This is why the other lights are flashing. Secondly is the bulb dual power or single? If it's single power you don't need to worry about the polarity. Just plug it in and go. And since you are putting leds in the turn signal you only need a single powered bulb. But it should stay lit. A dual powered bulb will not work in a single powered socket. And if it does it won't opperate properly. Do the other turn signals flash or light up?
Here is my LED brake/tail light. It's dual power.



I have a 2000 and the turn signals are factory led panels. So posting pics of mine won't help you any. How about turning on the hazzard 4-way signal? Does it flash or light then? You don't need to mess with any of the factory wiring. You're gonna end up like that guy I see on the road with turn signals for brakelights and reverse lights for turn signals and brake lights for.....well you get the point, haha.

[kmcatera00]

Cadi Cat - I have a 2000 Catera Sport and want to make the Tail/Brake LED conversion to match the turn signals. Where do I get these bulbs? My only hesitation in installing these bulbs is that I am afraid that they will appear as "bright clump" and not illuminate the entire area the way the regular bulbs do. Does that make sense? How do yours look? Any pictures you have of the brake lights w/the conversion would be appriciated. Although, it may be hard to capture in a photo. Thanks for your time! - kmcatera00

[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.

[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!

[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?