Easy LED tail lights, at last

[Red]

From the folks at http://www.superbrightleds.com:

2 1157-x45-T: 1157 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 45 SMD LED Tower 1157-R45-T: 1157 Red $24.95
2 1157-x3W: 1157 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 1 x 3 Watt High Power LED w/ Reflector Lens 1157-R3W: 1157 Red $12.95

taillights_zps69b56fee.jpg[/img][/url]Can you tell which are which from the picture? Actually, two are LED replacements and two are the original bulbs for comparison. The bulbs on the left are original, the bulbs on the right are the new LEDs. The x45-T bulb is in the outer position, the 3W is in the inner position. The x45-T seems to have better spread in the reflector and the outer tailight position takes better advantage of that. But as you can see from the lens flare, the LEDs both seem to be better than the original lights--at last!

The hardest part of replacing the stock bulbs, is that we have "reverse" polarity on our lighting systems, so most bulbs including the "CAN bus" standard types won't light up at all. One of these is marked non-olarized (will work in anything) the other not marked, but is working.

Sorry, no brake light pix, my foot wasn't long enough to reach the pedal while I worked the camera.<G> I was pleasantly surprised at how bright the LEDs finally are, but my main reason for putting them in is because LEDs actually light up faster than tungsten bulbs, and according to Mercedes that means the guy about to rear end you at highway speed, now gets to stop six feet further behind you instead. Hey, I'll take every advantage I can get over that guy.

[ryun84]

Looks great, functional, and not expensive! Is the license plate reflecting light from the camera flash? Looks like a mini LED monitor there LOL!

[Red]

The plate was reflecting phone flash, yes, but it also has been airbrushed out, intentionally.

Never show your plate on the web, there are folks who will run the plate and drop by with a tow truck. "Gone in 60 seconds" if the car is clean. They troll the car forums to find easy meat.

[MisterJerk]

They troll the car forums to find easy meat.

They can have a free lead salad for their troubles.

[JDMwhiteboy]

They troll the car forums to find easy meat.

They can have a free lead salad for their troubles.

^^this guy knows

[Red]

I'm all in favor of lead salad but even in Texas, they only allow that for horse thieving. Everyone else gets charged and convicted, so, nice snetiment but in reality, "Gone in 60 seconds" is actually about twice as long as a pro takes. Much simpler not to show 'em where they can find the car.

Besides, bullets have always been damned expensive.

[JDMwhiteboy]

Luckily, Your car is covered under the "My Castle" law in Texas. What that means is you do not need any permit or chl to carry in your car or house. If you are under threat, you may defend yourself. If that means some 40cal rounds near my car, so be it. I take other safety measures too. Lowjack or skylink are good ways to cover your bum.

not to take away from the OP, You said the CAN BUS lights won't work in ours right? So as long as we stay away from anything CAN we would be good?

[Red]

I'm not sure how your castle laws work, but typically, you'd have to be INside the car shooting OUT to claim it was any kind of defense. Up north we just keep an extra set of throw-down deer antlers around and say "You Honor, I thought it was deer season."

Back to our lights, no, staying away from CANbus isn't enough. Toyota has the entire lighting system on the car wired up freaking backwards with ground and hot reversed pretty much everywhere, so while a "normal" 1157 would have a ground to the outside socket and supply hot to light each of the base contacts, we've got a constant hot to the outside. I think. I haven't metered it out, because I took a look at the wiring manual for the car thinking that would make it easy. Except, the wiring manual says we don't even have 1157 bulbs, it thinks there are maybe four separate bulbs in there. I just gave up, tried two "non-polarized" not expecting them to be bright enough, tried two different "better" bulbs, and found one that worked. Finding the wiring manual doesn't match the car means I'll have to go borrow a B29 and conduct another minor corrective action over Japan now. Unless Mr. Toyoda is very fast about sending a formal apology and a corrected wiring diagram. <G>