I'm sure I'm not the first person to ponder whether older Caddies with bulbs for the parking and brake lamps could be retrofitted with LEDs. In fact, I tried installing one of those "hybrid" LED lights that has the older push-and-twist type base. But not only was it not as bright as the original bulbs (I was hoping they might even be brighter), the turn-signal flasher would not work (I assume the LEDs don't draw enough juice).

Has anyone found a way to make such a custom mod work? For example, I'd love to have my Eldo's vertical tail lamps a brighter red with that cool "instant-on, instant-off" look.

LED replacements might one day be as bright as the incandescents you want to replace; but not yet. The field of view is also fairly narrow.

I played with them extensively several years ago and decided not to leave them installed. My '98 has a single purpose amber turn signal on the rear and I was able to get the flasher to slow down by using a 10 Ohm, 10 watt resistor (Radio Shack) in parallel with the bulb. Be sure to mount the resistor body to a metal surface for heat-sinking.

mine is all LED ...my rear lamps have 3 3rd brake lights out of 97-03 chevy astros on each side...i gutted the astro units , removed the 14 inch LED segements and installed them in my housings ...on each side 2 sets illuminate for brake/turn and one set is for parking lights....My 3rd brakelight is also sourced from an astro 3rd brakelight...

in the front i have the hybrid style led units ....

my flasher unit came from grote industries , a speical one made for LED turn signal systems in big rigs , which was installed in the car after i revised the hraness there , my hazzard lights have a resistor and swtich in the path to ground to make that flasher work ...

Stoneage, I gotta say...that's damn impressive! :yup: Too much work for me, but I give you a lot of credit!

yeah it was a pain in the ass .....

Stoney...... type up a how to on that.....:contract::)

Just saw this thread. :yeah: We could get it in the How To section.

ill work on a thread for it ...i dont have pics of my install ...but i can write ...

here yall go , best i could do ...
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-tech-tips/90203-how-install-led-tails-your-non.html#post867263

It was great. I gave you rep because it looks like I can do it from what you wrote. I hope to try it in the spring, now its too cold. :thumbsup: